Age of Sin. Year 1027.
The end of the dusk took over the sky in the horizon ahead, the weak rays of sun that passed between the trees together with the silence of the insects and animals of the forest left everything in full and absolute silence. A painter faced with that forest could find a striking inspiration of late autumn, if it weren't for the sound of two people running between the trees desperately for their lives everything would be perfect... Or would there also be beauty in that scenario? Only the Paint Lord and great painters perhaps knew the answer to that.
Hand in hand with the other girl, at the front was what appeared to be a royal guard, wearing light metallic armor in gray clothes with a long sword attached to the scabbard at her waist, a young woman with white, half-tanned skin with long black hair. who looked to be about 20 years old was running for his life. Being pulled by her as a younger girl, she would appear to be about 17 years old with her curly hair and chocolate tone skin, her long white dress that hours ago could have been considered beautiful was now torn underneath for better use of her unhindered escape. .
— Noell!... We won't make it! — She almost screamed as the girl who was being pulled ran panting.
The royal guard showed no interest in her words, kept running, pulling her. The girl still didn't notice any more if she paid attention to her arms, they were full of blade cuts and even so the royal guard kept pulling her.
Voosh!
A knife crossed the air towards the back of the girl in the dress when she looked back, luckily a sword blocked the blade that fell to the ground in an explosion, however the knife that fell exploded in green smoke with a foul odor.
— Noell! — Frightened the girl cried out for her faithful friend who blocked the blade with her long sword.
— Not yet! — She replied as she pulled it again and they started running again. 'Don't wear anything!' Not yet!
Although the girl eagerly accepted, that green smoke probably had some effect on her friend, however she knew how to handle herself better than the girl herself whose fear of death was stamped in her eyes, if it wasn't for her royal guard friend's resistance she would herself would have given up without even noticing.
— Un.. .— The girl replied slowly as she ran being pulled.
Shadows followed them through the trees, shadow killers that clearly aimed at her life. Hours ago in the middle of their journey the girl, her royal guard and the rest of the royal guards who escorted them were ambushed, all were dead at this point and only the two of them had managed to escape, faithful men and women killed cruelly, still they had to run but otherwise they would have died in vain.
— Haa... Haa... Where... We're going... — Asked the girl running.
— Do not speak! Save energy for running! — replied his royal guard.
In the girl's vision they were running blindly through the forest. There was only one possible destination at the end of the forest, but the girl didn't know that. The shadows that were chasing them had already tried several types of attacks, being elemental, from poison, indirect traps... With the attacks overlapping and wearing down the royal guard it wouldn't take long for one of them to succeed and kill them both, clearly her royal guard had been poisoned in place of the girl, the royal guard himself knew it and so did the girl.
— Noell, you can't take it!" Let me help! — The girl complained.
— I know! Yet you can't! — She replied in a clearly annoyed voice.
Noell felt his whole body slowly numb, his eyes wanting to rest and his mind too, she spent the rest of all the magic to make her body resist the effects but it wouldn't take long, but it was enough time. If they hadn't been killed by now then she could resist a little longer, just a little longer... Just a little longer.
Having managed to reach the end of the forest the two came across a strip of stones and after that the yellowish white could only be seen, there was no life ahead, the cold wind coming from the east directly confronted their bodies demonstrating that there was no escape beyond to face the Salt Desert ahead. The royal guard did not stop and pulling the girl continued to run over the stone strip towards the Salt Desert. There was no way to hide in an environment without slopes, but at the same time there was no way for their enemies who were chasing them to plant. an ambush too.
— Hold on, I'll go full throttle. — Deploy your barriers behind us! Noell pleaded as he grabbed her arms and lifted her.
There wasn't much time, so she replied quickly, a translucent cyan shield-shaped barrier formed behind them accompanying them, Noell had put the girl on his back and using his own mana to strengthen his body he made several jumps expending everything he had remaining towards the front in a disorderly manner. As a royal guard her body had to be strong enough to sustain her post, at the very least she was also a blue aura master and as she had to be tough enough to be able to withstand anything like a study.
Although it would hardly be comparable to a simple aura master with a follower of a lord like the shadow assassins, even more so in a one-on-many situation…
Your efforts would be considered futile in the eyes of your attackers, coming out of something bad... and into worse. It wasn't that simple, as one of the twenty seven most dangerous places in Áz, the Salt Desert was reputed to have the last of the twenty seven locations within it, near the edge of the desert hundreds of years ago a huge hole had appeared. the size of the capital of Aggron, which was the nearest kingdom.
What was at the bottom of that hole? Nobody knew. Even Lords died trying to unlock its mysteries and enter it and before that there were not a few who tried. All they discovered in everyone's death was that monsters inhabited the bottom and not even the undead escaped their clutches. Going there was considered a form of suicide by certain madmen and Noell knew it well, he knew too much and despite everything that place was his goal, that place whose name no one should mention in vain, Aven'Nath Abyss.
Their pursuers slowed down the speed with which they were chasing them and yet they were still on their trail. For them there was no difference, if they managed to kill them by themselves or if they landed in that place their service was complete. Flames were launched towards them, just like that lightning also came out of the hands of the assassins, now clearly visible, who chased them keeping a speed a little faster than Noell's.
Crack!
Shield after shield formed by the girl was destroyed after several hits of elemental magic and in the same second they were destroyed others were built to take their place. The problem wasn't the strength of the shields, clearly they were tough enough to withstand even an attack from a Lord, however, Shadow Assassins were always the most apt to find fault by reading the magic flow, where the shield was weakest. , where the attack would be most effective, as was the state of the opponent. The "Adaptability" of the Shadow Assassins was feared in all realms and now their hands have reached them.
— Noell! — Seeing her goal, the girl complained scared. — Th-that... We're going to die!
Would that be Noell's goal? The suicide? For the girl, in her beliefs, suicide, with rare exceptions, was considered a serious sin and just the thought of it in her mind already made her shiver. Although it wasn't her decision, the girl clearly trusted Noell more than her own brother, in terms of Noell's trust for her, she was second only to her mother and father, seeing that they had no alternatives if that was their decision. the girl would not disagree.
— Maybe... That's the answer… — replied Noell, unhappy seeing that there were only a few hundred meters left to reach the edge of Aven'Nath Abyss. — May the gods be with us...
Even if she didn't have full faith in what she was doing, it was still her obligation not to back down. When she thought it would all end, she heard the sound of something cutting through the wind, she instinctively looked up and saw a few moments before reaching them an arrow covered in electricity, looking full of energy. She was in the middle of a jump, there was no way to escape, even more carrying someone in this situation, Noell with all the strength he had left one of his arms that held the girl and put him in front of the arrow that hit him full.
— Urrgg! She gritted her teeth as she endured the pain.
Her arm had been destroyed leaving only the broken and severed remains of what could be called her arm, the two had fallen to the ground on impact, at which point the girl implanted a full circular barrier on top of them and raised her royal guard.
— Noell! Without you I won't go forward! — The girl complained as she lifted her up.
Smaller and weaker as she was, it made it difficult for the girl to lift Noell with her full strength so she dragged her along with her, looking ahead she noticed that she was on the edge of Aven'Nath Abyss, just another 100 meters and they would fall into it. The barrier that protected them was close to breaking and the girl did not know what to do, they had not told her anything, when she noticed that something was wrong they had already been attacked. She held back the bitterness of not being trusted for things like that, yet there was one thing she knew… that whatever it was, she would trust her royal guard.
Boom!
At some point dozens of explosive objects were thrown towards the barrier which constantly cracked and broke and even then she quickly built another one.
— Come on Noell... Um... — Doing a low count the girl was getting ready to remove the barrier, it might look like suicide but it was still a chance... And it wasn't so suicidal when she launched herself down there. — Two three!
By the time something that looked like a needle exploded in the barrier the girl weakened the barrier making the explosion reach them throwing them away, Noell was already half unconscious due to blood loss from her arm and the girl watching her while they were thrown at Aven'Nath he grabbed her as if nothing else mattered, as they fell she noticed that something thin had penetrated her shoulder, it was probably those miserable assassins not giving her a chance, she just noticed her mind going dark as with what was left of her will she implanted an anti-impact barrier around the two.
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A storm was beginning to form in the sky above, the clouds darkened and presented the end of the calm hunt of the assassins, among those people who pursued the two were three women and two men dressed in black whose faces could not even be seen and hair, only their eyes were visible, these five were standing on the edge of Aven'Nath Abyss looking into the darkness below.
— Would it be safe to say they're dead on this? — asked a woman with a crossbow in her hands, she was the one who shot Noell.
— It doesn't matter. — Coldly replied a man with dozens of bombs of different sizes hanging from his clothes and the tip of two arrows as he put away his bow. — Even if the arrows survive, unless a miracle occurs they won't survive long.
— Whether they survive or not is not for us to worry about, just the fact that they fell, even more poisoned, can be considered mission accomplished. — Answered a woman who had a whip on her waist.
— I want to go to sleep… — grumbled a woman with dark circles under her eyes, however she wanted this all along. — Boss... Can we go?
— Yea. — The last one replied, this man didn't seem to have any weapons in his hands and despite that he was still the leader of that squad of assassins. — We have nothing else to do here. The main target will be presumed dead, let's head back to Aggron. We will need to follow the next targets.
After the boss's words, being swallowed by their own shadows as they took advantage of the end of sunset and the darkening of the sky by the clouds, everyone returned to start their next missions. Yet none of them knew what lay at the end of Aven'Nath Abyss, not even those who fell into it.
Life in Aggron wasn't that bad, despite the constant friction with the nearest kingdom, being in the south of the continent which is relatively far from the more central kingdoms Aggron could maintain itself without many wars, to the last real war with another kingdom it took place 300 years ago with the victory of Aggron few were alive to implant discord, however it still occurred… About 5 years ago strange movements began to occur in the neighboring kingdom and were almost at the point of a new war after that. Probably the assassins tasked with killing them were hired by collaborators of the sorts of people who wanted the kingdom at war, yet she didn't care too much about it, she just wanted to be in her mother's embrace again, like a good daughter seeking warmth. Familiar. The cold she felt made her want to curl up for more warmth, where was her quilt and pillow right now? She still wasn't really awake, she could feel herself standing on a hard, wet spot, could feel her skin bein
Ba-dump… Ba-dump… Something was knocking, that she knew for some reason and thanks to that she managed to wake up little by little, waking up she noticed her closed eyes were bothered with a glint on her eyelids, could they have died? Was it all a dream maybe...? It would be too good to be true, soon the pain in her shoulder, as well as the pain in her left arm, returned to torment her. Opening her eyes she noticed that everything was kind of clear in white color and a green light came from a nearby wall, coming to herself she saw Illye clinging to her, she seemed already awake and all that light was her active barrier around them. Was his authority functioning normally again? That was a gift- — Noell! You woke up... Finally! — With a clear joy in her voice despite her state where she had to create barriers being injured Illye spoke to her. — Where are we...? — Noell asked, looking around. What she could mostly see was water, like a sea below the ground whose rivers of water fell
She had been waiting for a few minutes now, leaning against the wall, she waited for any sign that Noell would come back alive and well because for Illye nothing else mattered now. Remembering her mother using Noell to fight, it reminded her of something that had taken place eight years ago, but now it was her mother who appeared. Her father and uncle never explained anything about what happened to her where they only said that it could end up happening again, that they should be careful, and in the end it did. — It wasn't that bad... It could have been worse. — She said when looking at the beast in front of her. In fact after she started to wait there another monster appeared aiming to attack,luckily this one was of another species being something that looked like a huge blue lobster, this and next to the other one they tried to attack her and luckily their barriers were resistant to the enough to last a little longer. The problem was that the more she wore was something that helpe
South of the Continent, North of the Salt Desert. Nothing made sense. When after so much pain he was finally freed from that cursed place, he was told that a lot of time had passed, and now what would he do? Who would know what to do? He didn't even know. After starting to fly towards the City of Azzaria, told by Illye which seemed to be the closest city to Aven'Nath Deep, Kamaell passed over a forest a few hours ago at high speed. He had already passed through there, probably, the forest that was once clear full of trees and leaves with shades of orange now looked dark and full of huge dry trees with no apparent life. Time seemed to be cruel to everyone, not just him. Nothing looked the same, nothing else looked the same as before. The young woman in his arms, known as Noella or Noell according to Illye, seemed to be fast asleep, even with the sound of the wind rushing past them she had no sign of waking up. The muscles in his body were almost torn apart from doing something they
Having spent about half a day, ordered by the lord of Azzaria, a messenger on horseback traveled as fast as he could towards the capital, just as a letter had also gone by way of a bird, better to use all possible alternatives. This messenger was heading to the capital and had now arrived at the nearest city of Azzaria looking to continue his mission after changing horses and letting the night pass, having entered the city and talked to the guards saying that there was something important to be delivered in the capital. the messenger arrived at the post where he would rest. On the way in a four-story building on the ground floor, a man watched the local commotion among the guards and listened to the conversations of the messenger leaning against the wall in secret. — It seems that something happened in Azzaria… — The man reflected as he left the place after understanding enough. He knew the princess had been missing for about four days and that was probably the work of the place he
Capital of Aggron, Dellaria, Silver Palace.A Colored Palace was the second symbol of a kingdom's power. A kingdom could only be considered a true "kingdom" if it possessed one of the Throne of the Seven Colors, so around it the rest in the eyes of many were just remnants fighting for power, with no right to any choice on the continent.From unknown times when the Thrones came into being, the place that contained them was called a palace. The palaces were defined by their magnitude, normally it was the tallest and widest building in the kingdom and with the passage of time in addition to the residence of the royal family it became the place where all the administration of the kingdom took place in every way it could be considered a of the pillars of a kingdom.The Silver Palace itself was not made of Silver, but the Silver Throne within it emitted an aura that over time changed the color of the entire palace to an almost white silver hue, just as all the other Thrones did with their r
Rushing out of the Silver Palace, Laylla first went to the Blue Temple because before she left there was someone who had to warn. As she rode through the wide stone streets, the main ones of the capital of Aggron, many could see her hurrying. The girl who normally lavished joy and happiness on the townspeople now looked hurried and worried. Arriving at the Blue Temple, she entered in a hurry, the priests and others who were there did not stop her, they just thought it was strange that she was in such a hurry. There was usually a certain distinction between the people who worked for the Blue Temple and those who worked for the Aggron Kingdom. It was more a matter of priority besides the fact that every Cardinal, Chief Priest and Deputy Chief had to be a Stage 4 or 5 Lord. Laylla had been a Priest under the Chief Cardinal of the Blue Temple until five years ago, but due to her disagreements with the temple rules by a
South of Aggron, Callua City. At a guard post near the south gate of the city of Callua, a girl in a dusty red dress was slumped over a bench, sweat was running down her forehead and neck, her once tidy hair now looked more like a cat's nest. tied by a cyan colored ribbon. Beneath her closed eyes, large dark circles spread across her face, with an equally exhausted expression she rested as long as she could, which wasn't much. A guard approached her carrying a brown leather bag, such a guard looked at the girl with pity and even then he couldn't do anything for her, she told them she didn't want any escort so she wouldn't be disturbed despite being dangerous. — Miss Laylla. Here are the groceries you ordered from me. — The guard commented with extreme calm as he offered her the bag. Opening her eyes quickly Laylla looked in his direction and took the brown bag, opening it she checked everything inside and then closing the bag and hanging it on her back she got up slowly. Further