Wartime Reverie

"What? What are you talking about?" Allen had no idea what the man was trying to get at, though he suspected the man was trying to agitate him. He didn't know what a son of the eclipse was , or what his parents had to do with anything.

 

"Ooh, betrayal" The man said to Allen looking back "A son of the eclipse is a male child conceived under the eclipse curse, just like the daughters of the eclipse and so on. Every child born under this has a half crescent moon hidden on their body. They also have an energy that makes people not under the curse dislike them by instinct, no matter what, it also lets me tell who is and isn't a true citizen of my Empire. But you don't know any of this right? If you are having trouble following me let me say it like this, your an eclipscion" the man said looking away from Allen "What are you doing?" the man asked Vendeval, annoyed at him simple ignoring him.

 

Allen laughed, painful as it was. He looked at the man with an arrogant grin. "Then you must have the wrong guy. I wasn't born under your curse, I was born in Janina, and plenty of people like me." Allen thought of Jen, he knew well enough that she didn't dislike him, and there were plenty of other people who liked him too. He laughed again. "You come here, trying to get under my skin, for whatever purpose, and you don't even have all your facts straight. That's hilarious, and here I thought you might actually be trouble. My mistake."

 

"Oh no, I am not mistaken and I never said you were born in eclipscion, I said you were conceived. But hey did you forget what I said about you, Narrow Minded, did you forget that, you can't truly see what people think so long as you have this trait" the man said "After all as long as you possess all those traits you will never reach your full potential, but then again maybe you already have, if so you won't be living much longer, a quick twist to the neck and down you go, but then again with the way you look a simple tap would drop you" The man said to Allen.

 

"You're full of it," Allen said curtly. "I'm Janinan through-and-through, born and conceived here. And if you're curse really is effecting me, then why do I have so many people I know who like me? Did you think of that. As for looking like I could down easy-" Allen gripped his sword tighter "-you should know that looks can be deceiving. But please, come and test that if you like." Allen was hoping that the man would be more interested in talking than fighting. For all his talk, he knew he was in no condition for a fight.

 

"Honestly a brick wall would be more understanding" the man with a sigh "But if you insist" the man vanished and appeared right in front of Allen and grabbed his right arm and broke it, he then kicked Allen right where Rako had stabbed him "How about a free combat lesson instead? Never ever challenge someone who could beat you down, because chances are they will"

 

"Congratulations," Allen was in excruciating pain, but suddenly he'd had an idea. "You proved you can beat an injured man in a fight. I doubt if I was running at a hundred percent that you'd be able to beat me though. That's why you waited until after I was stabbed to come here and cause problems right? You knew that if things got violent you wouldn't be able to hold out against me. So you waited until I'd be at a disadvantage before you came here. Like a coward. You and I both know that you wouldn't have been able to pull off that last trick if I was completely healed." Allen hoped that by saying these things he could bait the man into healing him before he bled to death.

 

Reese continued to walk through the palace, not at all lost. She simply retraced her steps and found herself at the front door. She looked on at the scene in front of her; paying close attention to the man from earlier.

At first, Vendeval only remotely considered speaking to the emperor and had decided against it; He wasn't doing the cloaked man any harm, and what was happening between the two of them was none of his business. He was looking for his master, and he could not afford to many distractions. But then the Emperor broke Allen's arm. "Excuse me." said Vendeval in an agitated voice as he slowly got up and turned around. "That Boy has done nothing to you, and frankly he was already injured to the point of near death. Your goal is complete, or at least the most important parts, and if you stay here simply to harm those who are currently too weak to defend themselves, I will have to assume it is an act of cowardice and that your scheming grandeur is merely a cover for that sad attitude. That is behavior up with which I will not put." He smiled; a cold calculative smile."...And I wouldn't go around underestimating people just because you are royalty if I were you..."

 

"You couldn't be more wrong, I am here because my idiot of second decided now of all times to show some honour, honestly I hired him to avoid such things" The man said in mock frustration as he kneed Allen in the face "And your plan to make me heal you is pointless, I have done this so many times I know all the tricks, hence why I am trying to help you, I know it doesn't look like it but believe me if you heeded my advice you would see so many flaws in the way you are acting and would see the big picture", the man stopped and looked at Vendeval "I am not underestimating someone because I am royalty, or immortal. What I am doing is teaching so if you could not undermine me while I give this boy a crucial lesson I would appreciate it" the man said to Vendeval "Just why were you inspecting that corpse anyway?"

 

"Oh, well that's interesting and all..." Vendeval began. "...but you really should finish up your chat with the student professor. He could die of blood loss or damage to internal organs any second, and you don't want him to miss the lecture..."

 

Allen's nose bled, he figured that it was broken too now. He reclaimed his sword and with an effort he used it to prop himself up. "You...you have no honor do you?" The pain throughout his body was igniting his fury, causing rage to boil up inside him. "It's a special kind of coward that'll kick a man when he's down. And I guess if you won't take the bait and heal me. Then I'll just have to fight you LIKE THIS!" For the first time in his life, Allen allowed himself to lose his temper. He could see that he was going to have to fight this man anyway, and he was already at a grievous disadvantage, so he saw no reason to restrain himself from lashing out in full force. He rushed at the man, suddenly able to ignore his pain. He took his sword in both hands and made a reckless, overhead swing at his abuser. The sword's blade was engulfed in light as Allen swung it. The light formed itself to the swords blade and extended beyond it, doubling the weapons length. And somehow, despite his injuries, Allen swung his sword with more speed and force than he ever had in his life.

 

"Funny I could have sworn I broke your arm, next time I will have to break it into splinters" the man said as Allen charged "But I see you just fail to get the point" the man added as Allen's strike made contact, but at that instance the man vanished and reappeared behind Allen and fired a beam of light straight threw Allen's spine.

 

After the man vanished Allen's sword struck the ground where he had been standing. It left a large gash where it had struck. As Allen's spine was pierced he fell off his feet. Rather than hitting the ground though he began hovering, light extending from his back and forming what looked like wings. He turned around. "I'm pretty sure you broke my arm too. But all of a sudden I don't feel any pain from my injuries. I have no idea how, but I think I like it." He readied himself to attack again. "Now you ready to-" Suddenly the light around his sword and coming out of his back vanished, his sword was de-summoned, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

 

"About time" The man said "He's not dead but I would say he is at his limit. So anyone else?" The man asked Vendeval and Drei.

 

"How about me." asked Nny as he casually walked past the gates up to the man. Nny was fearless, but that could also be seen as stupidity as he just walked up to a man who had almost killed Allen. Nny immediately healed Allen before laughing out loud. "I saw what you did to him... it was actually pretty funny. One of these days I'll stab him myself. Seriously, I don't think I've seen anyone that arrogant before! Besides myself, of course." Nny paused and looked at the man with a smile "Now, I've been waiting for a challenge, care to help me out?" Nny readied himself for a fight.

 

"No not really, I just didn't want you picking on anyone." He no longer needed to examine the corpse, as the information he needed from it had been attained. "Anyway, I hate to be rude, but your goal is complete and I think some of the people around here have some things to discuss. They might want to say something to me too, but I'm very busy. You might also be missing a few appointments." He turned toward the palace, and walked over to where Reese stood.

 

"Why must people keep pestering me for fights?" The man asked himself "Now if I was you I would get away from the palace" he said as he vanished, the airship approached the palace.

 

Nny watched as the man dissappeared and took his words seriously. He noticed the airship drawing closer. He looked down at Allen. He could easily just leave him there, but Nny figured that he might be good for a punching bag later. Nny picked up Allen and began to carry him. He looked at Vendeval and said "C'mon, we have to get out of here! That airship is getting closer. It's up to you if you want to come or stay, but personally, I'm not staying." Nny began to walk away from the palace, not stopping to see if Vendeval would follow.

 

Phisoxa ran down the hallway, using pure instinct to search for the king. She was intent on finding the man even though she had never been in this castle before. " Where is he..." Phisoxa thought as stopped by a pair of double doors that had a puddle of blood seeping out from under it. She cautiously opened the doors and found that she was inside a giant glass sun room. All over the ground lay the bodies of several knights, who were either dead or dying. Her eyes wandered over to the end of middle of the room where a man sat slumped over a table. Phisoxa's eyes widened as she ran forward and stood at the edge of the table." Your majesty !!" Phisoxa shouted as she lifted the man's limp form up and checked his vitals but found none. " No...." Phisoxa said in a hoarse voice as she looked upon the king's corpse.

 

The Eclipscion Airship positioned itself right above the palace as a light appeared under it. The ground around the palace started to shake similar to an earthquake.

Meanwhile in front of Nny appeared a pillar of similar to the one Claire appeared from. But it suddenly changed colour to black and started pulling everything near it towards it.