Far from Ardoros, where a new journey was emerging within the Devereaux Family’s Expanse, a seed focused on strengthening its roots before revealing its stems, which would soon cover the whole world in unending shadows.
At a distance of approximately 1,90,806 miles, crossing hundreds of huge landscapes known for their distinctive properties and variety of races, existed an isolated expanse known as the Heindal Continent.
Finally declared a treasure chest and becoming the goal of all surrounding smaller continents, which went as far as using their only few NNT Battleships to set on a journey to conquer this weak, unguarded place five years ago.
Unlike the advanced NNXT Battleships of high-level continents or middle ones, smaller continents had two numbered battleships, which were still enough to destroy a weak continent like Heindal.
Hundreds of battleships filled the skies of Heindal, which was an open treasure for the whole world, and a struggle started, which went on for half an hour.
Within half an hour, Heindal brought all nearby continents to their knees and declared itself the fourth strongest continent inside the Human Zone of the Blue Star.
There were separate zones divided based on races, each holding the majority of the population on their respective continents, with separate rankings for each zone and a universal ranking for zones.
Meaning, inside a Human Zone, Ardoros Continent was at the top, and in the universal ranking, the Human Zone was third.
The single reason for it to be third, even though humans were considered weak races, was due to Ardoros itself, representing the strength of humans on the Blue Star.
Inside Heindal, within five years, the whole system changed from feudalism to monarchy, with a single Empress ruling over the entire Heindal, which had grown the fastest in the history of the Blue Star.
The Empress was able to create artifacts rivaling the advanced technology of high-level continents.
There were two Sword Gods, with one being the Sword Maiden herself, a renowned figure referred to as a living legend, and the other being the 1st Disciple of Sword Valley, Ronen Silvester.
The title of Sword God was given to the sharpest swords present in the arsenal of Sword Valley, with only one of them typically present on a continent boosted it’s ranking under middle-level ones, but Heindal had two.
Right now, Heindal was a den of powerhouses, including rising talents that seemed to be sending waves into the surrounding continents, whether they were personal disciples of the Sword Maiden or her own daughter.
But the Gates of Heindal were closed for any outsider on the orders of Empress Olivia Silvester, who rose in power once the Silvester Family united the whole Heindal under its sovereignty.
Inside the small mass filled with trees and natural moonlight, soaking its land, near the borders of what once was the Selvius kingdom, but now everything was just the Silvester Empire.
CLANK
“Haa… Haa… Why are you after me?” An old man with his fluttering white beard, gripping his sword, shouted with one of his eyes now missing, glaring at the pink-haired young man in front of him.
“Some old memories resurfaced,” a soft voice revealed itself.
Even with a boyish appearance, the beauty held by the figure was unable to hide the soft skin, milky white with a pinkish hue, pink eyes filled with coldness fixed on the old man whose state was broken.
“You bastard!” The old man shouted, seeing himself being tracked by this individual even after going into hiding, after the previous king of Aidiac was killed at the hands of a little girl, now known as the disciple of the Sword Maiden.
SWISH
BANNNG!
The old man tried to aim a small nail filled with Mana poison towards the young man, but it seemed to only resurface some hidden memories, causing a knee kick to the man’s gut. “Kuughh! —Thud.”
Falling to his knees, clutching his stomach which was pierced, gritting his teeth, the old man couldn’t understand why this figure was hell-bent on killing him.
“Why me— SCHLKT!”
“AAAAGGGGHHH!”
A sharp blade directly dissected his hand from his shoulder, blood bursting out of the now slit arm, his eyes turning crimson, veins popping up on his neck due to the scream. “Kughh…. Ha–ve M-ercy!”
“I wanted to live too,” slowly moving her hands, Celestia gripped the now crimson hair of the old man, drenched in his blood, her sword sliding on the ground with the old man’s body being pulled towards a tree with its big barks, resurfacing her vivid memories.
SCRREEEEECHH
“Cough!…..KHUGHH, P–lea-se!” The old man’s voice fell on deaf ears, her eyes devoid of any sympathy.
The memories of not being able to even confess her feelings in the last moment of her life were vivid, more than anything.
Those broken words :: You must be busy, Your Majesty…kughh…can you hear me for the last…I reall….lov— :: were still vivid in her mind, the brokenness she felt in the last moment of her life.
Until the end, her feelings were kept inside her just to give her sister a chance in that life to have him, but now, it all seemed like a big regret.
Her sacrifice became the pain of her very soul, tormented to the point of losing herself in the agony of not having any chance to meet him once more.
But there was still hope and a connection which kept her believing he was safe.
“You shouldn’t have killed me,” her eyes turning cold with hands clenching in a single fist before retreating while creating a force.
SWOOOSH
Mere recoil from the fist’s force uprooted the nearby trees, proving the physical strength hidden inside that petite and womanly body.
Delicate fingers gripped in a fist launched towards the old man’s chest.
SPLASH
BOOOOOM!
Just the mere force of the fist turned the man’s body into blood mist, with the force destroying the whole forest falling in the way of that fist’s impact, reaching more than twelve miles, with a shockwave enough to break nearby land into several pieces.
CRUMBLE
The aftereffect of that single punch caused the nearby land to form cracks within them due to the force.
“Phew~” exhaling her breath, Celestia’s eyes hollow due to the memories which took more than three years to resurface after the incident known as the Emergence of Heindal.
Turning her eyes upward, reflecting several ships filled with soldiers from Reinguards arriving at that place, her eyes seemed to be not satisfied after taking her revenge; she wanted something else.
But her hands were still not within reach to have him, at least until she could find some means to travel to Ardoros, which was far away from the reach of any existing transport means on Heindal or nearby continents.
SWISH SWISH
“Young Miss, please leave the clean-up for us,” one of the arrived men knelt in front of the figure, his eyes fixed downward, accompanied by the other nine present there.
drip
A sound was heard by their mana-enhanced senses, causing one of them to slowly lift his gaze, which reflected a young woman, her eyes hollow, looking towards a certain direction, tears trickling from her now tear-filled eyes.
thump thump
‘Why?’, Celestia’s gaze was fixed in the direction where reaching was her sole goal now, but the connection which kept her sane until now wanted to separate from her, not understanding why it was happening.
Thud
‘Why now?’ Her mind fell into a trance, her body falling to her knees.
Seeing how soon the fulfillment her heart had was going to be taken away from her, the moment that connection was tried to leave her, a cry filled with agony came from the depth of her soul, filling the surrounding forest. “YOU CANNOT ABANDON ME!”
The depth of her agony held the string which had opened its knot from her heart tightly, not wanting to let it break, holding it with her sheer will.
The pain drenching her body was not physical but emotional, far more intense than any physical pain.
It was the pain of being abandoned by someone who was more than her own life.
SNAP
‘Huh,’ a small sound resonated in her sea of consciousness, making her realize the connections were severed forcefully, a knight’s oath broken by its Master, abandoned.
pittar-patter drip drip
Raindrops started to fill that full moon night, falling on the whole barren land which was devastated for miles, before falling on the body which was now just a mere vessel, broken from within.
Pink hair drenched in wetness with a face masked in raindrops, mixing with tears and water, making it hard to identify.
What was left was a hollow space, far more painful than anything one can imagine, an agony only an abandoned heart can understand.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Inside the Ardoros,
Regina’s very light crystal eyes, with amber tints in a small area, reflected the figure of a young man seated on a sofa, supporting his chin with folded hands placed on his thighs, while a woman stood beside him with folded hands and a soft smile.
Her eyes reflected the cold gaze of the young man who declared, while standing from his seat and arriving in front of her, “Not by placing your life as some collateral. Serve me on equal grounds, with mutual respect and understanding.”
Looking at her widened eyes, Ryuk with a serious expression inquired once again, “Will you serve me as my Sword, Regina?”
Thud
“I will, my Liege,” swiftly kneeling in front of him, with her fist placed on the floor, Regina’s eyes filled with determination, completely decided to have trust until the end in her Liege.
WHOOSH
Suddenly, a concentrated ethereal string glimmering in blue light, with several tiny shards orbiting around it, coming out of Regina’s kneeling figure, moved towards Ryuk.
DING!
[ ESTABLISHING SOUL GATEWAY ]
ERROR….ERROR
[ The host already has an established gateway, so with his soul level, two gateways are not possible. ]
‘….’ Ryuk, upon seeing the popping up notification, understood that he indeed had a sword before.
However, as he looked at the kneeling figure, he realized he needed to choose between his past and present.
Not based on emotions, yet unable to decide, he left the choice to the system, saying, ‘Choose one of them.’
DING!
[ Comparing both Knights ]
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
1. Celestia Reinguard » Present Submission 99%
2. Regina Devereaux » Present Submission 99%
« NOT POSSIBLE TO JUDGE BASED ON SUBMISSION »
➼ CHANGING CRITERIA
◘ Choosing based on Strength
➼CELESTIA REINGUARD = MIDDLE PRIME PERFECT
➼REGINA DEVEREAUX = PEAK LEGENDARY PERFECT
━━━━━━━━━━━ ⟡ ━━━━━━━━━━━
[ Severing Connection of Celestia Reinguard due to her Weak strength ]
ALERT!
[ Retaliation is detected ]
[ FORCED SEVERING IS INITIATED….]
DING!
[ ACCEPTING REGINA DEVEREAUX AS NEW KNIGHT]
Seeing everything, Ryuk didn’t know how he felt about it all.
There was just a hollowed feeling inside him, which was then filled again.
Was he disappointed by abandoning someone, or satisfied by gaining such a strong sword?
He didn’t know, but at least Celestia would be able to find a deserving Master, unlike him, who had been chosen using her helplessness to protect her sister.
‘I hope you find a good life ahead of yourself, Celestia.’
More In-depth Information will be revealed once things needed in accordance with plot, until then, I will add fragments of Heindal’s status.
