Age of Heroes

FOREST NEAR THE CITY OF TRYON

Whoosh!

Arial could hear the sound of wind whooshing around him as he holds tightly on the rein of his horse.

Firebringer has ridden speedily cutting through the trees like the steed of wind.

The path to the mountains is steep but not impossible and Firebringer can ride easily like the horse was on the grassland.

Arial rides on top of the horse, smiling. Wind whooshes around him and leave fly up around his horse hooves.

By now, West and Kyle must have departed to Aetherland. This is all part of Arial plan.

Kyle has reservation with the plan but Arial convinced him saying that he need to establish contact with some Vanguan lords to help Arrandy influence to grow here.

But of course that was a lie. Arial have no intention of meeting the other lords.

His true objective of staying in Vangua after the coronation of King Edward is none other than to find the cure to the poison in his body

Arial did his due diligence after leaving Darc.

After a few days, of constant vigilance, he is finally convinced. No one seems to be following him. No one knows he is here.

No one knows what he is doing here.

His court believes him to doing a secret mission toe establish contact with some Vanguan nobles, while the rets of the world believes he is coming back to Aetherland with West and Kyle.

His plan worked. Now he just hopes the second part of the plan also worked.

West is disguised as him to return to Aetherland as per his order, and to inform the people of the castle to keep up the ruse among the House Council.

He is riding the carriage while West is guarding the carriage like he usually guards him to avoid suspicion by other people.

And while those two and his entourage is returning home, Arial is here, still in Vangua.

Now that Edward position in the Court is secured Arial can go to fulfil his real objective of coming here to Vangua.

Though, Arial said that the throne is secured he did not discount out the possibility that it is not as secure as it could be.

But for now, it has to do.

Edward will have his shares of problem when becoming the ruler of one of the powerful kingdoms in the Human Continent.

There is plots and intrigue to fend off and people scheming in the dark to bring him down. And while Edward has his shares of problem, Arial too have some problems to settle

'The Linzi Temple' he muttered, reminding himself of the destination that may hold an answer to his most desperate question.

Is there a cure to the poison that grows stronger every day in his body? If there is an answer for this question, he believes only that monk in Linzi Temple could answer it.

Arial knows himself and because of that he knows that it will not be long before he succumbed to the pain.

By then, he could already predict what would happen to his duchy and all of his plans for the peace of the Human Continent

While he did send Silas to establish contact with the King of Arakath, there is always a possibility that they could not stop this impeding war between humans and Demonkind.

If he dies and Arrandy was thrown into a state of chaos, then all of his efforts and sacrifices will go down the drain and the tragic fate that he saw in his timeline would once again repeated itself.

That is not something he could accept. This is why this measure is imperative for his survival.

He hoped for a miracle, like those devotes of the Church. He believes that the answer to this question could be found inside the famed and Great Linzi Temple

The Temple is revered among the people of the martial art world, a trove of historical and precious documents from the Lost Generation.

It is the abode of the Abbot of Linzi Temple, the Southern Healer one of the Four Immortals.

Abbot Montesquieu is of Frank descent and he is the Southern Healer.

The reason he went through all these difficulties to come to Vangua and seek the Temple is because beside the Church, the only one who have text on Lost Generation that survives the burning of books by Levitia is the Temple.

This feat makes them one of the rare places that have countless of precious book from the Lost Generation.

The protection of Levitia serves them well during his purge.

Levitia had deep relationship with the Temple owing to the fact that the Abbot of that time save Levitia life when he was a child and imparted the martial arts of the Temple to Levitia.

It could be said that the Temple is the teacher of Levitia. Arial now had come to the Temple, just like Levitia, searching a hope to remain alive.

Arial is sure that the Abbot Montesquieu would know how to translate the book and give him some definitive answer on what he has to do cure his poison.

With the text he got from Michael, he is at high hope. He rides his horse until he could see that the sun is coming down.

Night have come. He stops riding and then he decided to camped among the trees, making a makeshift small hut with thick branches of wood.

He then set up the fires with the flint he bought in the city.

After that he sat down inside his makeshift hut. Looking at the mountain in the distance, he predicted that he will arrived at the morning if he at dawn

'Hmm. This is quite a long journey.' But Arial did not show any tiredness. There is this kind of excitement that could not be hidden by his listless word.

Since he become a lord and the Duke of the duchy, he had always stay cooped up in his meeting halls or the House Council.

But now that he is outside, he could be free like in the past when he was wandering all over the Human Continent to hunt evil men and monsters.

The night beckons and Arial look into the clear moonlight. He had adjust finished eating the bread he had bought from the city.

He whistled by himself to alleviate the loneliness. The sky is clear today, and the moon appears among the starlight.

"It cast shadows, while dark things roamed" Arial recite.

He always wondered why he always quoted the Book of the Dark God. To him, the content of the book and it stark difference with the Book of Light always leave him puzzled.

The Book of Light which always focus on good fighting evil and always prevailing is not so interesting compared to the Dark God testament.

In the Book of the Dark God the story begins a little different though it almost sounds the same.

"In the beginning there is darkness. And then light came and shower the world with it Grace. The One created many creatures."

That is how it usually goes for The Book of Light. The Book of the Dark God beginning is like this

"There is great wisdom here for those who are enlightened. Open the pages, read the verses. There are words veiled and obscure meanings hidden beneath small and great shadows."

That is how it started and in the end of the book it ends with

"O look at the stars you ignorant fools. Look towards the moon. Look towards the sky. Look and see the truth in the starry skies"

"Forbidden energy, shadows forms and predator comes to hunt. This is the peril of darkness The Maid said to her companions"

Thinking about it the Maid in the Gospel of the Dark God may refer to the First Generation.

No one knows how this organized religion is formed but anyone knows they have long existed before Levitia.

Though there is some chapter added later like Levitia Quest and Alan Gospel in both books, the other stories in the both Book of Church and Light refer some things that happens thousands of years ago, like the Journey of the Maid, reunion of the Tribes, The Trials of Family.

It is the story of people with great morality and great strength, where the God is vengeful and swift in his judgement and dark beings roamed the world.

Arial shakes his head and look back at the moon and marvel at its beauty, remembering the many times he met Helia under its light.

He unconsciously smiles. For a moment he forgot all the things that worried him and just…look.

Still in the cold night air, illuminated by the shining moonlight, breathing, feeling the peaceful serenity of the forest and just look.

Arial hope that this quest of gaining some information for his disease would hopefully be fruitful.

As he looks and reminisce old memories, suddenly he could feel the onset of pain was about to strike.,

The pain strikes and Arial quickly clutched his chest in pain.

'Arghh' He winced labouring under the pain. Quickly he regulated his breathing and slowly regulate his tangled internal energy. Arial could feel it fighting against each other.

'I have to bear it.' He said to himself while gritting his teeth.

At least for tonight. Then the cloud covers the moon and with that he feels the weight of his own tiredness weighing on him.

'I should sleep' he thought to himself as he wipes the sweat on his forehead because of the pain.

Thankfully, this time the pain did not linger for long.

As he calms himself down he lay his head on the ground, under the starry skies and with hope in his heart he closes his eyes.

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