CH-02 : The Death Of A Powerhouse
Seventy years ago, before the last Great Emperor's death.
A small yet pervasive force slowly started waking up in this world, relishing in its chaos and destruction. This small force wasn't lethal, at least yet, and only enjoyed the sights of destruction by others.... as if they gained their powers relying on this.
Not many people at that time were aware of this force, which was almost dormant and didn't even reveal their sharp fangs to the world.
They sprouted in the silent depths of this very Dark Forest, the one in which Alan found himself now.
After their creation, they didn't reveal their inner madness, they listened and obeyed the orders from above and closely observed the behaviors of various powerful forces at that time.
Silent yet destructive observers!
No one knew how powerful these people were, nor anyone knew when they would strike.
In fact, this group of people, even after their creation remained dormant for months, only slowly increasing their numbers, adding more and more faithful and devoted followers to their ranks.
They grew silently and watched the world closely, diminishing their presence, and waited....only waited.
Until one day.
The last Great Emperor of the Bright Sun Empire fell seriously ill and his heirs started showing their ruthless sides to each other, trying to suppress and dominate in the race of ascension to the throne.
Even though the Crown Prince was declared, no one cared about that.
What Crown Prince if that person died in his bed on a cold night? Would there still be anyone in their path, challenging and suppressing them from showing their true colors?
No.
The Emperor was severely ill, barely holding onto his life, while the faithful Ministers and Generals stood by the Emperor's side, the opportunistic ones started to grow bold and support several other heirs in the war of succession.
At that time, the Crown Prince was in a state that was beyond anyone's comprehension other than himself. Nearly twenty direct line heirs and several others along with their backers slowly started to reveal their nefarious intentions for the contention of the throne, challenging the Emperor's might, and to end the feeble life of the proclaimed heir, the Crown Prince.
As the situation in one of the mightiest empires of the continent grew tenser day by day, a group of faithful followers approached several people, who were in contention of the throne at that time.
If it was anyone else, they might have approached the one who had real authority, the Emperor and the Crown Prince. However, these groups of people were devoted believers of Chaos and Destruction, and thus they never wished for peace in this mighty Empire.
What they wanted was simple.
A Feast!
The cacophony of destruction and madness!
Rivers of blood, Mountains of corpses!
Faith of Chaos and Destruction above all!
And so, they approached the ones who would be able to provide them.
With the help of these powerful groups of people, the situation in the Empire as well as in the capital grew more severe. Every day, some people were assassinated in cold blood, leaving behind no trace. Even with the combined power of several Imperial Departments, the situation wasn't resolved. Only some minor Nobles were caught and thoroughly purged by the Great Imperial Family. Other than that, the Imperial forces achieved no significant results at all.
After several rounds of clean-up, the faithful group finally started to show their might, by targeting the one who would probably rule this mighty Empire one day, the Crown Prince. By luck, skill, and sacrifice of several capable people as well as people close to him, the Crown Prince was able to come out alive out of several compromising situations as well as assassination attempts.
Until one day, a minor Noble's daughter was taken hostage and their entire family was killed overnight. And as for the woman who was taken hostage, she was sacrificed to the God those people served. And this very woman was Crown Prince's one of the future wives, a secret lover, unknown to many, who was murdered and sacrificed in cold blood, all to target the man.
The grieving Crown Prince, who even once thought of showing restraint, finally understood something. The Imperial Palace had more spies than that of outside and their secrets weren't safe at all. As for how these spies entered the palace, infiltrated several departments without making a sound or how many of them were still active in the palace, even near to him, was unknown.
Out of desperation, mistrust, and rage, the Crown Prince called for a secret yet dreaded ritual, "The Sacrificial Blood-Bond". A non-impressive man at that time, who served as part of the Crown Prince's security detail from a very early age, was called upon by the prince. Under the ritual of "The Sacrificial Blood-Bond", the man swore the "Blood-Oath" and offered his life to the prince, vowing to serve him and uproot all obstacles for him.
Semore Nodrevich, the only son of a small and reclusive Noble family, who was selected as an Imperial Guard for his valor and extreme skills in Swordsmanship and later through constant battle achievements became part of the First Prince's security detail, the current Alan Nodrevich's predecessor, finally made an entrance to the broad world under the lead of the Royalty, outside of the Empire's influence....the one, where he even stood against the Gods one day.
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However, what these group of people did, how the Empire finally stood against these people or how the Crown Prince finally started devastating retaliation commanding his forces with absolute brutality that even scared the shit out of some old Imperial Generals of that time...were all part of the Empire's history.
All of them had nothing to do with the current predicament faced by a robust man, who was dressed in black-tight fitted armor, with his hands on the weapons on his waist and his eyes were emitting an unyielding yet destructive spirit.
With a single look, one could easily determine that this person was of Noble birth!
A High-Realm bonafide Noble, who had deep roots and powers backing him.
His sharp visage, robust physique, unique style and magic-reinforced armor along with his mighty and unyielding spirit was the undeniable proof of his origin.
But, no matter how noble his birth was or how mighty his momentum was, currently, he was nearly collapsing under a suffocating pressure that pressed upon him, coming out of nowhere.
Nathan Bradford, the current acting Commander of the Cloud Sun Empire's Night Hawk Division present in the Dark Forest was now trembling all over, feeling and realizing that he might actually die if this goes on.
He screamed in his mind with all his might, yet unable to speak a single word aloud.
"What the hell is happening? What is happening here, in this forest?"
He, along with his small team, were stationed in this place for almost five months. And never before he had faced such a dire situation like this.
He tried everything in his current capabilities to free himself from this grasp of certain death, utilized his energy, and tried to boost his cultivation through some forbidden means, but nothing happened. He also tried to contact the outside forces as well as the person in charge above him in the Night Hawk Division, and yet it all resulted in nothing.
Out of desperation, he even tried to contact his Noble House, the esteemed House of Bradford, one of the dominant forces in the Empire of Cloud Sun, lording over distant regions of the southwest as the Territorial Lords, holding the prestigious rank of Duke. But to his utter dismay, he couldn't even send a small distress signal to his home, how could he expect them to send some powerhouse to rescue him from this predicament?
As his despair grew more and more over time, his breathing nearly halted, spirit in the verge of collapse, he could also see that he wasn't the only one in this type of situation. Several of his teammates, elites of the elites of the Cloud Sun Empire, were also in his shoes, wailing and waiting for their certain death.
He could only think that the Great Sun Empire had launched some punitive expedition against them or probably that force...
However, before his thoughts had the time to grow in a certain direction, he collapsed on the ground. Utterly helpless, he saw most of his comrades had already closed their eyes, were they dead or alive...he didn't know. Before losing consciousness, the only thing he was able to see was nothing but darkness, as a profound curtain of Darkness emerged from the forest and rapidly spread across the area they were stationed in and engulfed them thoroughly, without leaving a single trace behind.
At the same time, several thousand kilometers away from the dreaded Dark Forest of the Empire, in the Ducal House of Bradford, the Soul-Crystal of the youngest son of Lord Duke shattered with a resounding bang, leaving the Soul-Shrine Observer of the House in utter state of shock and bewilderment.