Prince of The Abyss

As chaos is bestowed as usual on the streets of The Withered. It is time for us to see what is going on behind the onyx wall that separates the two districts.

It was time to see what life was like in the Blue Rose.

To see the life of a divinity compared to a mortal.

In this district of hope and destiny, a beautiful castle stood tall in its center, serving as its heart. Many roads came from it, like veins and arteries spreading through the body.

Six big towers crafted from a flawless stone stood with no cracks, and the walls themselves seemed impregnable, not even by a powerful dragon.

It’s dawnbriged crossed the endless river that flowed around it, letting those who dared enter.

Beyond the walls, many people were happily wandering around, shopping at the many markets that stood. Some sold relics, some food, if I squinted my eyes a little, I could even see a royal tailor, an apothecary, even the tent of a seer.

A blacksmith for young readers to buy their first relics. Even if those artificially created aren’t as powerful as those gifted by the codex.

There was also an inn, where a bard was gracefully blessing the world with the sounds of his violin.

It was... peaceful.

And in the middle, a great fountain in the shape of a greater deity enlightened anyone who stared into her eyes. Some even say that those who stared into them couldn’t stop looking until someone disturbed them.

The statue of the God of Praise, who had blessed their land

This was TheMerchant’sWard, a place that holds almost anything you could ask for. A place where the smell of freshly baked pastry was like an everyday encounter.

Where taverns held an endless amount of readers, seekers, and even some bearers to drink to all their hearts could handle.

The bailey was usually filled with people, just as it was now, since everyone could enter it, even the lowest of nobility.

Now, beyond TheMerchant’sWard, was The Noble’s Ward, only separated by a thick wall and a bunch of small towers, each holding an archer inside. Prepared to eliminate anything that got through the outer bailey.

This bailey was home to millions of nobles, as well as a giant ivory cathedral, with tens of churches circling around it.

The cathedral was as old as the fortress itself, yet still looked as if it hadn’t passed a day since it was created. After all, it was the place most graced by the gods, well, except the castle itself.

There were three types of nobility in the Blue Rose district.

The lowest lived outside the castle, but that didn’t mean they were forgotten. The world beyond the actual fortress was as great, if not greater, than all three baileys.

The second type of nobility was the inhabitants of The Noble’s Ward.

Nobility ranks weren’t determined by blood, nor by origin, but by how much one had been blessed by the merciful God who blessed their land a long time ago.

Which leads me to the last and highest rank of nobility, those just around the corner from being royalty themselves. They lived inside the last bailey, The Royal Ward, neighboring only with the royal family itself.

These nobles are said to hold the blue blood and were called Celestials.

Their beauty was said to be immeasurable.

Celestials were also a big part of the kingdom’s military, generals of war and survival. Each family has a combat branch, and many other lower nobles under them.

Some of these armies even had harbingers.

But now, let’s speak about the royal family itself.

Living inside the castle station, inside the heart of the inner bailey, its walls were blessed by the power of the king himself, and countless guards stood night and day to protect them.

Thought it was funny that a breaker had guards. Many considered them to be unkillable, which was pretty much correct at the moment... maybe not in the future... but the king hadn’t assigned the guards to guard the castle for himself. But for his family.

To be specific, his daughter and wife.

He also had a son, but he was as scary as him, if not scarier.

He was only twenty-three and already a harbringer, and one of the most powerful of his generation.

To be honest, the King, even with his power, feared the future. Things have been accelerating, and the infinite library felt weird; he just didn’t know why.

But he knew it had to be related to the vessels.

Out of nowhere, they had appeared, the warriors chosen by the gods to change the world; that was how their predecessors had been described.

Something weird was happening, and the arrival of the new vessels only confirmed his theory. After all, the last vessels appeared more than a millennium ago, so something had to have happened; the gods wouldn’t come back from their graves for nothing after all.

It is said there were five great gods; they had already found four of the five vessels, which was splendid news.

Actually, the first to be discovered was his own daughter, Iris Vaeloria. The princess of the kingdom was now also the vessel of their god.

Iris was the vessel of the God of Praise. The one said to have ended the battle between divinity and had blessed humanity with peace.

The other four, though, were a little harder to find. But luckily, it wasn’t hard to persuade them into submission to the kingdom. Well, not all, there was one that still clung to his pride, and was held in the dungeon of the castle.

He was a boy from the Withered, so he had expected some resistance, but he had to admit, he admired the boy’s will. After all, the one he was going against was a breaker, someone who was not quite human anymore, and he was just a reader.

So with the king having three of the vessels under his control, and one trapped in his dungeon, awaiting to join the others, why was he so scared of the future?

It was all because of the last of these prodigies.

While the other four stood out in a conversation, the last seemed almost invisible. Not much was known about the last god, and most aren’t even aware that a fifth god existed. But that was especially what made his vessel so dangerous. Being forgotten can be a very powerful weapon if used right.

The king massaged his forehead, and sorrow swirled inside his dark heart.

”Vessel of the God of Forgotten”

He could be anywhere in the world. Hidden in either the Blue Rose or Withered...

or even worse, another kingdom entirely.

Even with having the other four at his mercy, he felt sick thinking that there is a chance that the monster is there somewhere in the world under the control of another Breaker like him.

He rose up from his throne and looked outside from one of his many windows, staring down at the kingdom he had spent so much building, shaping, and ruling.

At the happy faces walking through the streets.

It made him happy, but a feeling he couldn’t describe dwelt inside. The feeling of losing them all, of losing everything.

He dragged his palm against the glass, and where a glorious kingdom once resided, has been replaced by one in complete ruin with monsters trailing the streets, shadows overthrowing their masters, and the sky being devoured by darkness.

And in the center resided one man, on single anomaly, one that once hid in the shadows like a rat, and now had become a prince.

This sight was treacherous.

The vessel of the forgotten was a complete disaster to what his kingdom had built around. Praise, hope, faith. As someone who had the least, he is the greediest.

Though there was still a little hope lingering in the King’s heart, and the hearts of many other Celestials. Hope that the last vessel had not been born, and won’t be born.

The God of forgotten had lost the war, and had been sealed by none other than their beloved God of Praise, one whose powers were unrivaled. So they hoped that the fifth god was unable to channel enough power to embody a vessel.

But then again, the others had died and still prevailed over death to give humanity their last gift. So who says that the fifth couldn’t have done the same with his seal?

All they could do was have faith; luckily, they were quite good at that.

The next moment, the sound of a bell ringing lingered in his ears.

He sighed.

It was time for the royal family and the Celestials to talk about a very interesting discovery. Something that had spread distress in the Noble’s Ward, and caused many to question their safety.

The death of Edric of the Virmon family.