The news of the sudden Ursus invasions to claim what is rightfully theirs spread like wildfire around the Kazimierz, the National Council ordered to mobilize the troops to thwart them back, fearing that the invasions would come like dominoes after Sami, and fearing that the Ursus would claim or kill the Sage.
Many branches of the knights participate in fighting against them despite their overwhelming superiority in power.
Hence why the Silverlance Pegasi stood among the corpses of the Fourth Army, the piles of bodies scattered across the forest in the morning light.
And hence why Platinum of the Armorless Union pulling back her string of her bow before releasing and killing the last of her enemies, Centaurea, looking upon her and the others' work.
"An Armorless Union, people once believed you were just mere myths... but here you are." said one of the Silverlance knights as he wiped the blood of his enemy from his sword.
"Right back at you, mister appearing-out-of-nowhere-who-thought-to-be-dead-knight," retorted one of the bow-wielding Armorless Union knights, as his band of assassins cleaned up the mess.
When her leader gave them a sudden confidential mission, they never expected to hunt down a squad of Emperor Blades who were rumored to guarding this area.
Much less meeting a living legend in the flesh and in a very coincidence place too, everyone thought the Silverlance Pegasi had been wiped out during the Ursus-Kazimierz wars long ago, and of course, their mission parameters were different from the assassins.
"So, got any clues on this 'Elder' you were talking about?" the knight assassin asked one of the Silverlance as he poked the Ursus soldier with his foot, checking if the Ursi was still alive.
"The camp wasn't far from here; if we hurried, we could save him and the others."
"Uh-huh, you scratch my back, I scratch yours?"
"Indeed, we will assist you in these endeavors."
Centaurea gave a thoughts about when it comes to those royal guards that carrying a demon fragments within their armor and can wipe out an entire city; what are their leaders thinking, sending them out into the woods to hunt them down alone with no support? If they weren't meeting with the legends themselves...
'We would be dead already...' she thought grimly, thinking why the leader sending them out on a suicide mission.
Then one of her seniors, the Lazurite, patted her on the shoulder and grinned, "Well, Platinum, why don't you take a point for us?"
Platinum nodded while hiding her disgust at him using his power for his own bidding; really, Roy never seemed to have any shame doing so, not even in front of the legends.
Still, what are the Emperor Blades doing here? Shouldn't they be fighting on the other side of the frontlines?
The young man rolled, dodging the multiple bolts as they chased him down. Getting back up on his feet, he swiveled the blade in his hand towards the axe that was about to lob his head off. The sound of clanging filled the air, while the Ursus marksman tried to kill Adam with his crossbow again. But before he could fire, the elafia took a shot at him, the bolt sailing and went through his head, killing him instantly.
Adam faced off against the Ursus soldier in a calm manner before overwhelming his strength to push back his opponent's axe; the Ursi weapon was swing to the side freely as his jaw was uppercut by Adam and threw him down to the ground, leaving him in disoriented.
"Never knew you were ambidextrous, that's one hell of a fight anyway." said Firewatch as he walked up to him and saw eight melee soldiers knocked out cold except for one.
"And why are they still alive?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at him, pointing why he hadn't killed them off yet; the young man just blinked.
"I just don't feel like it." In truth, it just doesn't feel right. The thought of him holding a sword and using it to kill people makes him uncomfortable.
He continued before Firewatch could say anything, "So, how the heck did they find us quickly? If I remember correctly, if we hadn't taken a detour, those guys could have caught us just a few hours ago..." He paused slightly, before adding, "And it was kind of funny though, seeing half of them chase us and slip off the cliff the moment they set their eyes on us."
They chase until they slipped and fell to the ground so hard that they broke their spines; the cracking sound of their back and cries of pain were still fresh in his mind.
He doesn't know if he should laugh or feel sorry for them.
"I don't know... but maybe our friend here has the answers..." she then moved past Adam to the last Ursus soldier who was still recovering, she kneels and bringing her knife to his neck, "Well, why don't you answer his question?"
"Fuck you! Do you think I'll spill it out just because of your death threats? I'd rather die for my motherland than giving you any information!" The forest knight was about to threaten him again, but stopped when she narrowed her eyes and looked down at him. She saw a blue card hidden in the pocket of his coat.
She snatched it out as Adam walked beside her while scratching his ear; the ID tag seemed familiar to her. She knew the tag was a standard for every mercenary identification during any contracts. There was a phrase in the Sarkaz language engraved on it.
'May the Sarkaz never suffer again.'
It clicked in her mind.
She turned the back of the card quickly; her heart was beating fast with anxiety and fear, and there she saw a codename and a picture of the familiar face to her.
'Meteorite.'
In a remote forest or military camp not too far away, the sound of a grunt filled the air as the old man groaned in pain after being kicked by a man wearing a military officer uniform. The old man lay sprawled on the ground, while the captive audience who were being guarded could only watch him being beaten down by the Ursus officer.
The officer walked up to him before grabbing the old man's by the collar, his eyes filled with rage and his teeth bared.
"Care to repeat what you just said?" He snarled while staring down at him in fury.
The elder stared at him through his eyes and smiled, "You warmongers never cease to amaze me with your people's stupidity; you and your barbaric armies will never catch up to them. They've already left the moment you invaded us." The captain punched the elder in the jaw, knocking him to the ground, then spat on his face as he flinched.
"Barbaric? The only thing I see barbaric here, you and your people, Samifjods. Worshipping a dead tree and believing that nature is a god. Never mind being called bloodthirsty barbarians by the rest of the world, a snowpriest like you should know all about that." The officer walked over to the tribe chief and stomped on the elder's back as he screamed in agony, "Send in the artillery, Wendigos and Emperor Blades, not even the Kazimierz can stop us."
The old man gritted his teeth, trying to soothe the pain, "That sacred tree was also the one where we received the knowledge of the existence of the Sage."
"You mean the tree that prophesizes the sudden migration of one-fourth of your people near the Kazimierz and our border?" He bent down to talk while pressing his foot on the snowpriest, "Don't lie to me, you people have that information, not from a tree but a fucking tablet."
The snowpriest's face twisted in shock, a dreadful sense welling up within him, "H-How?"
"Did you think you were the only one who had it? Our early emperor found one of the artifacts hidden beneath the ruins somewhere on the Infy Icefield. If he hadn't discovered the tablet, we wouldn't have believed your people nonsense."
That got him silent for a few moments as he thought about what his enemy had said; there's no way the Ursus has the other tablet, right? There is only one tablet in the world, the tablet even says so…
Of course, despite at the end of the text it was almost like it was cut off–
No...
Unless...
Then he turned his head slowly to the adeptus, whose hands were also tied like the others. The knight's eyes were wide with shock at the revelation, having heard from the captors that apparently Sami and Ursus had the tablet too.
The elder's eyes were now closed; he now understood why the Sage going to appear in such a cryptic message – it was because the tablet were broken into pieces, and the Sage would never appear anywhere else in Sami, Kazimierz, or Ursus.
Because the Sage will be revealed in Sami, Kazimierz and Ursus; the Sage will be standing on the border between these three nations – at the exact same spot.
Not on each nations border alone.
"The Sage would stand on three nations border. It seems there's a misunderstanding, Ursi..."
The captain, fuming in rage, brought out a thin sword and pointed it down at the snowpriest's head, threatening him with the sharp tip of the sword to stab into his skull. "Did you think your lie would get through to me? Did you think your sudden migration was a mere coincidence? Your tribe wasn't supposed to be in this land, and you were trying to get your hands on the Sage!"
"No, our sudden migration was due to the demon attack; it's not what you think." The snowpriest's mind raced as he considered many possibilities of why the Ursus would think that Sami would steal the Sage for themselves.
This wasn't orchestrated by their nobles–
Right?
No, if it wasn't, then why the Ursus thought they were going to steal the Sage? Didn't the nobles get the memo that there was going to be a migration of some of their tribes due to a demon attack a few years ago?
Then a sound of cry reached their ears, and the officer looked at his soldiers who were bringing yet another prisoner. "Well, well, look what do we have here? I'm not surprised that the devil even here, considering they're always shows up whenever there's chaos around... Tell me, what is your name, Sarkaz?"
The bruised mercenary and sandy long haired woman was baring her teeth, and glaring at the officer, before thrashing around trying to get them off of her. One of the Ursus infantrymen hit her back with the sword's handle, causing her to grunt.
"A devil always be a devil..." The officer snorted at her futile act.
"I'll kill you when I get off–!" she tried again before the Ursus soldier kneed her gut, she gasp in pain and drop to the ground, trying to hold back the torment.
"What is the meaning of this, Ursi?" The snowpriest asked in calmly.
"Simple. I will roll all of your heads before sending them to your friends." He grinned maniacally before continuing, "And you both are our appetizers..."
The soldier who brought the Sarkaz mercenary walked up to him and whispered something in his ear before walking away, the officer then lifted his leg and began to walk off from the snowpriest.
"Looks like you both can still see the sun today; enjoy your lives." Then he ordered all the captured prisoners into the cages. The snowpriest sighed in relief after recovering from his shock before being picked up by the soldiers.
"Ursi, just know this; the Sage will appear on the three border of our country. You were being manipulated and lied by the nobles who thought that we would steal the Sage for ourselves."
"The dead shouldn't talk." but he waved the elder warning dismissively.
The snowpriest just shook his head and glanced back at him as the two soldiers grabbed his shoulders forcefully, "The truth will be revealed, a new era will be on the horizon, and when that time comes..."
"Terra will never be the same again..."
AN: Okay this is my first time doing an announcement, the last reply was a bit confusing since I really don't know which special character(s) I should reply or dumping info before taking an example of how other authors' gonna do announcements.
I'm really sorry.
So, first thing first, I'm going to clear this up and no dilly dallying, the timeline where Adam dropped was on the Firewatch hometowns destroyed although more different.
Second, the thing that stole Adam from Earth is not... you know, if you catch my drift, and if you don't, just forget this one.
Lastly, I don't own anything except my OC. I'm going to drop announcement if there's something pops up in the future.
Thank you. OpMadmann, over and out.