Chapter The Crown Prince
The Crystech Guards all aimed their rifles at Rory, who stopped around 100 yards away from the walls of the compound, he rested his sword in the white sand.
"I am not here to fight any of you, send out my sister and her friends, and we can settle this without the need for bloodshed... well, without shedding your blood" Rory grinned, bearing his teeth.
Atlas jumped down onto the sand in front of the compound walls.
"I have no quarrel with you... whoever you are" Rory said, picking up his sword in preparation.
"Well I do with you..." Atlas growled.
"Hmm?" Rory shrugged, as he got into a fighting position.
"You killed my son, you piece of shit!" Atlas roared and charged at Rory, Rory went to swing his blade at Atlas, but was hit in the knee with a well-placed burning arrow, he turned to see Roisin smirking.
Rory roared in anger, Atlas swung his sword at Rory, which Rory grabbed with his bare hand, slicing his palm. His red blood fell on the sands below, he pulled the sword from Atlas' grasp and threw it aside, then he went to pick him up by his neck.
"NO!" Roisin shouted.
"Roisin... stop!" Atlas shouted, turning to look, but it was too late, Roisin was charging at Rory.
"Finally!" Rory cheered, he grabbed Atlas by his neck "Watch as I destroy who you love most" Rory laughed.
Roisin's eyes suddenly flashed bright red, she dropped the bow on the ground, on both of her wrists, two mini red crossbows, with blades attached appeared on each of her wrists, she jumped a few feet into the air and dove at Rory.
Rory threw Atlas to the ground and dodged, Roisin swung at Rory in a flurry of attacks, Rory moved back as fast as he could but got grazed by the Celestial Blades several times.
He jumped to his feet and kicked Roisin back, she fell to the floor and cut her arm on the sharp sand. Rory smiled and pointed his blade at Roisin's neck.
Rory suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach, he looked down to see a rapier blade sticking out of his chest.
"Hello again, brother" Ariel said, emotionless.
Rory swung around, with the blade still in his chest, he reached for it, growling with anger, but he was sent falling into the sand by a crushing force on his back. Dex had jumped down at him with his halberd.
Rory panicked and tried to get up, but Atlas had gotten back up while he was fighting the others, Atlas pinned him into the sand with his blade. Ashe walked over and handed Atlas his sword.
"This one is yours" She smiled.
"This is for Petyr" Atlas frowned. He raised Ashe's claymore up and swung it down at Rory's neck. The deed was done.
Seconds later beams of light began shining from Rory's veins, his headless body rose up, before falling to its knees, the light flew into the skies above, and then headed south, leaving Rory's lifeless corpse behind.
"Good work..." Atlas sighed, he turned to walk back to the camp, looking dejected, but suddenly felt two arms wrap around him.
"I'm glad your okay" Roisin said, as she hugged Atlas tightly.
"You too, kid" Atlas smiled, he turned around and hugged Roisin.
"The Princeling is gone, you can breathe easier at last" Atlas said as he let go, Roisin nodded, she fired a fire arrow from the Celestial Crossbow at Rory's body, it set aflame within seconds.
"Now he is" She sighed.
Lumina was atop the throne, endless light hung above the skies of Aranei, threatening to fall up on the city at anytime. Lumina kept them at bay, she had no intention of destroying the city any time soon, the Empire was too great of a toy.
Several wisps of light flew through the window and into Lumina.
"Hmm, what a disappointment you turned out to be, Rory, not a lion, but a mere alleycat" She sighed, she had a glass of red wine in her hand, she took a swig of it and smiled.
"Never mind, I have much bigger plans, you were just a sideshow" Lumina grinned
The summer sun was beaming down at Wynd Academy, it was the last day of term. Ferick Ewen was relaxing on the grass, it had been a long year, and he was looking forward to relaxing. He closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh summer air.
When he opened his eyes, another student was stood over him, her eyes were as white as snow. She grabbed his arm, and he went to shake her off, but it was too late, the light had already begun to spread through his arm.
Ferick yelled for help, but when he looked around, he saw several other students nearby had the same white eyes.
"No...NO!" Ferick shouted, he grabbed a rock and smashed it into the side of the attackers head, they fell to the ground. Ferick struggled to his feet, he looked at his arm and saw the light spreading.
"Fuck!" he shouted, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Ferick drew his sword and slashed at his arm. "ARGH!" Ferick yelled as his forearm fell to the floor. He cast a quick fire spell and cauterized the wound. The pain was nearly unbearable and he struggled to stay on his feet
Ferick felt another hand on his shoulder, he rolled to his back and pointed the sword with his good arm, it was Headmaster Wynd. His eyes seemed normal.
"Come, we must escape..." Wynd frowned as he helped Ferick to his feet, several other students tagged along behind him, they fought off pursuing attackers.
Wynd cleared a path to the airship landing, while Ferick followed behind, holding onto his arm and wincing from the pain. As they reached the airship landing, Ferick noticed a huge hole had been made in the walls of the landing, with dirt leading toward the far end of the landing bay.
Wynd grabbed Ferick's hand and lead him to a large airship to which the dirt marks had lead.
As Ferick reached the doors of the airship he saw it... the Wynd Crystal was sat in the hold in some kind of apparatus. Ferick gasped, he could feel the energy radiating from it.
Ferick sat down aboard the airship. He looked at Wynd who had begun pacing about the hold. The floor shook as the large airship flew out of the landing bay.
"What happened...?" Ferick asked, clenching his teeth, he was still in serious pain.
"The 'Empire' sent an Envoy... this is worst case scenario." Wynd uttered, looking at the viewscreen.
Wynd Academy was in free fall without the power of the Wynd Crystal, it fell onto the hills at the far end of Ishtall.