The Journey Begins

After gifting the small boy an apple, Osiris set off. He was still within the city, the bustling streets slowing him down. The noise around him was an ever-crashing wave that assailed him; the chaos and hustle of people moving from one place to another, the constant beat of Dusks' hooves against the cobbled streets and the sound of carriages rolling around the city streets.

The smell wasn't much better than that of the stable he had gotten Dusk from. The slight stench of fecal matter and urine drifted to Osiris. However, he ignored the reek from people's residents. He had lived in the slums of the capital for some years and had long gone deaf to the horrid stench.

He couldn't blame the people, though. They merely had no other place to put it. Their king had also made no effort to improve the peasant's quality of life. The rich of the capital lived closest to its center. They wished to show the people they were closer to the ultimate power the king held.

The oppressive rule of Silias the Mighty had lasted a long thirty years, and there were probably more to come. During this period, he established himself as the one true ruler of the kingdom. He killed any of his completion, those of his family who could inherit the throne were said to have perished first. Next in line were any noble households who wouldn't bend the knee.

After the first few years of terror, one brave man stood against the king's tyranny, and a small militia joined him. The peasant's hopes soon burned to ash. The king held a festival to cement his rule through the rebellion's defeat by sprinkling their ashes upon the streets. If Osiris could describe the kingdom's ruler with a single word, it would be brutality.

Osiris was nearing the northeast gates of the capital. So he decided to look at his map once more. The continent Soaric was made up of five larger islands. These islands were all under the control of the three great nations.

The Solic Kingdom rested in the center of the map and held power over three of the five large islands and was ruled by a single power.

The Endratic Empire was north of the Solic Kingdom and had captured one of the five large islands; they also controlled two smaller islands. One to the east and one to the west. This nation was governed by a council of eight.

The last of the three great countries was the Kingdom of Solace. It held the remaining large island on the continent and was west of the Kingdom of Solic. The kingdom of Solace was being controlled by a group of religious followers; called the Solace Seekers. They strived to bring peace through unification, even if it meant conquering others.

Osiris was heading towards the Maw, a mountain range northeast of the capital. If he were to meet an adversary along the way, it would either be a mercenary hired by the kingdom or, it would be an Endratic soldier.

Soon Osiris noticed the sounds, smells, and sights the capital offered drifting to the wayside. The gates to the city were just ahead; two knights guarded the portal to the outside. Osiris passed with only a couple of glares, of which he glared back with equal intensity as he marched through the portal with Dusk.

The road that Osiris was travelling still had the cobbled paths from within the city. The stale stench from the city was starting to fade, replaced by a cool, refreshing breeze from the east.

The wind gave Osiris a sense of freedom. Nobody and nothing could control it indefinitely. Even under the manipulation of mages, the wind would soon return to its natural state.

Osiris continued down the road for some distance, slowly increasing his pace. He then retrieved his helmet from his satchel and fastened it to his head. The knights at the gate had known him from his armour alone.

The Knight Slayer continued down the cobbled path for some time. Eventually, he began to feel the shift in the earth beneath him, changing from the smooth cobble to a course and rocky dirt path. There were no longer any carriages along the trail; he had not seen a house in some time. The sun had also begun to dip into the horizon. He continued along the trail until he found a small clearing which he would make into his camp for the night.

Osiris was happy to sleep under the stars and had tied Dusk up to a tree. Osiris then decided to start a fire. He collected tinder, kindling, and firewood swiftly and soon assembled a small fireplace. While mental magic was handy in a fight, sometimes applying other forms of magic was also useful.

One such form was runic magic. The process of filling magic energy into a rune. There are many different kinds of runes each one giving off a corresponding effect. Each spell would also require more magic to be cast depending on how potent it was. The one that Osiris was using would let off a brief fire when injected with magic, the paper destroyed in the process. Doing so he lit the fire, and an enveloping warmth washed over him. He took out a few strips of salted meat and an orange and snacked on them until he fell into a dreamless slumber, the fire just barely embers when he fell asleep.

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Osiris once more woke before sunrise. The sound of birdsong just starting to fill the air around him. Then in the rising sun, he saw something strange, it appeared he had a visitor and he was unsure if they were friendly.