Mon'Ter

Chapter 7: The Prince of Benulis

Far away from the trading town of Cloran, was the capital city of Benulis, the city of Banul.   

This city is one that could be called as both gorgeous and humongous if it were compared with any of the other nearby cities.   

A river ran through the entire city, flowing from the western side where a big mountain range stood. The water circled around the castle, giving it a rather pleasing look. 

The streets were paved with marbles and decorated with expensive vases filled with flowers, the buildings were clean and made with many artistic addons that gave a pleasant sense of relaxation to the residents.   

Many carts and carriages passed through the paved roads every hour, be they for transporting stock or being used as transport for the city residents themselves.  

As for the city walls, they reached as high as forty meters into the air, marble and silver coating them to make for intricate patterns that gave the city an exquisite and beautiful look even from far away. 

Inside the walls, the whole city of Banul was filled with people roaming the streets, many varying products could be found at the market places that came from all over Benulis, some on rare occasion even came from other countries where travelers had gone to, prior to their arrival here.  

It was the gem of Benulis, a city that many have named as the largest in the world.  

…  

Today, a group from one of the royal knights’ divisions returned from their short journey on the outside of the capital.  

The more than twenty-man squad of division six had ironically been reduced to a mere six people, their captain was nowhere to be seen either.  

Some people who recognized them wondered what they had been doing, a random small group of merely six royal knights returning from outside the city wasn’t an everyday occurrence after all.  

Once they arrived at the castle, they gave a rather outrageous report in the throne room before the soon to be king.   

“I beg your pardon? Could you repeat what you just said?” The slightly irritated voice of a man spoke from the throne upon which he was sitting on.   

“Royal knights sixth division commander... Roland Creek is dead, sire.” Bowed the knight deeply, the same knight who had asked Roland to leave the mission behind and run away from Mon’Ter.   

“And my Sister?” The voice spoke again, this time more irritated than before.   

“We don’t know sire... Most likely, she too has perished at the hands of that humanoid monster...” The knight spoke nervously, knowing full well what he was reporting.   

“Hmm... I see,” The man said with a sigh, before standing up from his throne and slowly walking up to the knights that were now trembling in fear while kneeling, “And, do pray tell where you cowards were at the time of your own captain’s, as well as my sister’s demise?” The man asked.

Crouching down to the kneeling knight and grabbing him by the chin to raise his face up, “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue, soldier? Speak up.”   

The knight looked up, seeing the face of a handsome young man who wore exquisite clothing fitting of a royal, he was tall, reaching 6’1’’ in height and had a slim but fit and muscular frame.  

The young man had exceedingly dark short hair and a pair of sapphire-colored eyes that reminded one of gems were he to gaze into them for long enough.    

His hands were rough and strong, reason to that being his extensive training with the sword for which he was pronounced a genius since a tender age.  

This, was the crown prince of Benulis. Aydian Von Ezabelle Benulis. The soon to be king, war fanatic who would send the coming years into a scene of carnage the moment he came of age and took the crown officially.  

He would turn twenty-two in the following year’s spring, as it was currently summer, that meant there was less than a year before Aydian’s coronation.  

“W-We... We ran away, sire...” The knight replied, sweat dripping down his forehead.   

“Oh! You ran away did you? Oh my, how brave of you!" said the man with sarcasm as he continued, "My, my, what a bunch of wonderful knights I have here. Just exactly like what I need to start my conquest and conquer our dear neighbors!" chuckled the prince with a jovial tone.   

“S-Sire?” The knight spoke up nervously, getting more afraid by the second along with his comrades.    

“Yes, my dear knight? Oh, what's that? A reward? Of course! you all deserve such a wonderful... Wonderful reward.” The cheerful attitude vanished as the man’s sapphire eyes began to glow with a sinister cold blue light, “You shall experience a rather pleasant time in the following weeks, then you may continue your servitude to me, my ‘loyal’ knights. It’s just that... It won’t be quite the same anymore.”   

“What do you-” Before the knights could even ask what Aydian meant, the inside of their bodies began to deform, causing them to scream in agony.    

“AAAAAHHH!!!” Their screams were heard all throughout the throne room as they tried to take their armors off to no avail, the pain which they felt was unbearable. 

It didn’t take long for their internal organs to rupture and burst, ending their lives within moments.   

“Hmmm...” The prince mused, looking over the scene disappointedly before speaking up, “Lerroy, you seem to have saved me the trouble of torturing them to death.” Aydian spoke, rather displeased as he turned his head slightly to the shadow behind him.   

It was a sapphire-colored specter, a color quite similar to the prince’s own eyes, he was wearing the garbs of a magician as well as a skeletal mask.  

“Your lordship needn’t dirty thee hands with common rabble, not to mention there are more pressing matters to attend to in our current affairs, sire. Please, forgive my intrusion.”  The specter bowed lightly and returned to the shadows.  

“It’s fine... Torture or not, this was still going to be the end result, although it isn’t nearly as fun...” Aydian spoke somberly and had his sapphire eyes glow once more, raising several lights from within the fallen knights’ bodies. “Return to me, my soldiers.” He smirked smugly as he muttered.    

Upon his words landing, each one of the lights began to morph into a humanoid body, transforming into a spectral sapphire colored version of the knights.   

They stood silent, unmoving and with emotionless eyes. The knights had become quite alike to the specter named Lerroy.  

Such was the power of Benulis’ crown prince, Aydian Von Ezabell Benulis, the power to turn the souls of the fallen into loyal soldiers that would do his bidding.   

For he was a genuine necromancer in the form of a soon to be king.     

“Good, seems like they’ve gotten slightly stronger.” Aydian said and waved his hand, having the specters turn back into lights that entered his eyes.   

“Aydian, my lord, you’ve desecrated more souls I see.” The voice of an old man spoke with enclosing footsteps.  

It was a 6’2’’ tall hooded wrinkly old man, holding a wooden staff that had a spiral end at the top, he had a long snow-white beard and wore the garbs of a magician.   

“They deserve far worse of a fate, Court mage Gandar, these scum abandoned the only key to the ‘Scepter’ I had left.” Aydian grimaced, “Now how do I find it... Both my stupid old man and my goodie two shoes of a sister are gone.”   

“It is still unknown whether lady Elyenora has perished or not, keep your calm my prince.” Gandar spoke, trying to calm Aydian down.   

"… You’re right. Knowing her and her insane survivability, she might still be alive and struggling somewhere with her pitiful attempts. We can still find her." Spoke the prince in a nonchalant tone as he returned to his throne and laid his back there, "This time, I will do a wide scale search for her."   

Aydian then clapped his hands once, prompting a butler to emerge in the throne hall and ask solemnly, "What do you need, my lord."   

"Contact the Assassins Guild. I want you to put a bounty on Elyenora, make sure they know not to kill her and not to alert anyone of the current ongoings in the royal court.” The prince ordered with a rather serious expression. 

“I offer a thousand gold coins for any who may locate her, and three thousand more for those that bring her back alive to me." Aydian continued, leaning a bit forward to point with his finger at the butler. 

“Understood, my lord. It will be done with haste.” The butler replied to the prince, before speaking once more, “Would you require any more of my services, prince Aydian?”   

Musing for a moment, the prince made another decision, “Yes, in fact I do. I want you to contact the Hunters Guild as well, put up a high-ranking monster subjugation quest for whatever that humanoid creature that killed Roland was.” He said as he laid his back on the throne once more, looking up to the ceiling of his extravagant hall. 

“All things considered, that man was still a Royal Knights’ division captain, so rank the beast as a high to peak ranking Noble class one, honestly it could potentially even be a Lord class monster.” Aydian monologue, waving his hand slightly at the butler.  

“Come up with whatever excuse for its existence that you’d like and offer five hundred gold coins to anyone that can hunt it down and bring its corpse to me.” The prince gave his final order.  

The butler, having received his orders, bowed in a polite manner as he tried not to mess up even the slightest of movements in front of his master, and replied obediently, "It will be done, sire."   

Nodding to the butler, the prince raised his chin to excuse his servant from the throne room and began thinking things through about the current situation.  

‘Even if Roland was among the weakest of captains, he would still be able to defeat a Champion class monster on his own without any difficulty... According to the report of those knights from before, he had been completely overwhelmed. That can only mean that the creature was either nearing or already at the ranks of Lord class.’ Aydian thought, contemplating on how powerful the mysterious being might have been.  

In this world there is a certain ranking system that both monsters and beasts follow.  

It is there to show the difference between beings, so that one might know whether they should trifle with the creature or not.  

Warriors and mages alike often compare themselves to these ranks as well, however they were generally meant for the beasts that may threaten mankind. 

The lower classes being named as Inferior, Common, Rare and Champion class respectively.  

These four are generally seen as the most common amongst the world, they each have huge gaps in strength even within their own class, one might say there is a second, unofficial, form of ranking within the classes themselves. 

That being, Low, Mid, High and Peak ranks. 

As for the other classes amongst the monster kind, there were two more that a person could stumble across in their travels. 

The so called Noble and Lord class beings.  

The Noble class, and any which follow past it, are quite a bit different from their lower predecessors.  

The beasts who've managed to reach this class would all be endowed with a pair of magical eyes of their own, much like the nobility amongst mankind. 

As for the Lord class, it is made up of the strongest creatures which one can find in the wilds, many times more powerful than those within the Noble class.  

Lord class creatures are exceedingly rare to find as well, but do sometimes appear and wreak havoc to any place they find themselves in, if left unattended for too long that is. 

These classifications are well known and respected, however there are still three more above even them, two of which are known as the Arch-Lord and King classes.  

The beings within these classes don’t appear just anywhere, they’re rare to the point that Arch-Lords only appear once in a generation.  

As for King class, well, such had not been seen in the last hundred years. Those who are remembered in stories are always seen as horrific figures that threatened the structure of entire nations.  

And finally, the highest rank of being which has ever been mentioned or recorded, was the Emperor class.  

However for this class, it is uncertain if anyone or anything has ever even reached it to begin with.  

Such a realm of power could potentially rupture the very foundation of this world.  

Sighing, the prince finished his thoughts, ‘No matter, that creature won’t affect me further. If someone can bring it to me, I’d be more than glad to add it to my collection though.’ 

Aydian then glanced at Gandar and spoke as he held his head with his right hand, "Gandar, what do you make of that creature?"  

“It seems like a sort of mutant to me, sire. I'm unsure of what it is exactly though. It could be interesting to research however, so if I may ask, could I acquire its body after you've extracted the soul, my liege?” Gandar bowed lightly,

"Of course, if you can learn about it then I'd be able to use it better. In any case, you're dismissed," Aydian replied without so much as glancing at the mage.

"Thank you, my lord," Gandar then bowed once more and quickly turned to leave the prince with his aids.  

Aydian simply sighed once more, resting atop his throne while surrounded by four specters within the shadows, two on both his sides.  

‘I cannot allow Elyenora to gain any sort of backing... I need to strike now while she’s still weak, capture her before she reaches Weylorn, get what I want and dispose of her swiftly.’ Aydian thought to himself, holding his chin with a hand.  

He held no power within Weylorn, not yet anyway. It was a city with a rather troublesome lord that held much power in this country, and to top it all off, hated politics.  

He and Aydian did not see eye to eye at all, however Aydian knew that if anyone could. Elyenora would be able to gain his backing.  

“Zoria,” The prince spoke up, turning to one of the specters. “Contact someone and have it made public that princess Elyenora has gone on an expedition to the ‘Caves of Lydia’ with five squads totaling to eighty-five knights from the 1st 2nd 3rd 6th and 8th division royal knights. We need to have a cover story at the ready for her, the two divisions of traitorous scum following her and their demise.” Aydian ordered.  

A feminine voice then sounded, “Of course, I will do so immediately my prince.” The female specter replied solemnly to Aydian’s request, vanishing the moment after from view. 

The reason for this order was simple, Elyenora had not left the capital alone. She had done so with the only two Royal knights division captains that supported her wish to keep the peace, as well as a small squad of their two divisions’ top ten best knights.  

It was the 8th and 3rd division.  

Because they were being chased by the other three divisions with three times their numbers, Elyenora’s group opted for a split up.  

One of the female knights acted as a decoy for Elyenora, while the princess herself became a common traveler who went through the sacred forests of mount Lydia.   

Sadly, something went wrong and the 6th division wound up finding her while the other two continued their pursuit of the decoy. 

The rest there is history.  

Within the next days, the talk across the whole country was primarily about the Dancing Sword Princess’s on-going adventure to the old caves of mount Lydia, a dungeon that held many'a treasures, which no one had managed to explore till the end yet.  

There were many who worried for her, many who were confident in her success and some who questioned why she had even gone there with so many royal knights in the first place.  

They were either thinking she was being selfish in a search for a ‘safer’ adventure or that there was something more going on behind the scenes, the random returning squad of six knights only served to bolster the rumors.  

Aydian on the other hand proceeded to smirk to himself, thinking of the soon to transpire. ‘Oh, my dear sister. Your efforts are futile, my plans will proceed with the coming of spring next year just like I want them to, you and your goons will be at my feet within the week’s end.’  

The prince simply chuckled to himself with a smirk on his face, confident in the future that he sought after.  

…