The Legend of Tantus - Book 2

Chapter 3 - Thorgele

    At the same time as the great Kin Lyeben, another of the most important stories of war and the world occurred. The story of a family that resulted in one of the most legendary men in the Tantus archives, building his legacy with honor, loyalty, love and courage, the story of the Alberich family.

    Loki Alberich, prince of Lieben, son of Kardia Alberich, a young man with fair skin, brown hair and blue eyes, owner of an enviable beauty that rendered him a tremendous success among the maidens of the kingdom, but he was not only appearance, growing in strength and courage to become the future king. Despite so many hearts of the beautiful noble young women at his feet, Loki fell head over heels in love with a simple peasant, although no less beautiful, Litos Cressid. Kardia refused to accept the simple young woman as a future queen, but her son's heart was already decided, and nothing, not even his father, could change him. A few winters before the discord of the power, Kardia passed away, and his son inherited the throne with the misfortune of hearing from his father the last words that he would not bless his marriage, he believed that his son's choice would not be an ideal queen, no for their humble origin, as many imagined, but for the fragility of her heart, however Loki and Litos were married, and were happy. When the great war broke out, the king commanded his armies with determination, leading them to great victories and aid from other kingdoms alongside his great captain, the legendary Kin Lyeben, and the queen's heart was relieved with each safe return of her husband. As a ruler Loki was exemplary, but it was on the battlefield that he prided even the lords, not for military strategies, but for value, he never admitted to watching his soldiers bleed alone in the war, brandishing his sword side by side with them, never remaining in the back line, especially beside Kin. His father, Kardia, may not have been an example of understanding, as he showed when he disapproved of his marriage, but he carried a sense of honor so great, rigorous and sincere that it did not even fit inside him. “Loki, you will never be like the others, one day you will be king, and kings can not be the same. Never think of yourself as superior, but keep in mind that soldiers, traders, peasants, all live to give life to your kingdom, but you live to give life to them. Accept your destiny and embrace it, give them peace in any way you think is right, because this is your duty...” – said Kardia. And the way he found it was courage. In fact, the king always felt more at ease in command of his army than ruling over his throne, and this was the great quality that made the greatest warrior, Kin, follow him unconditionally, capable of giving his life for his king, because he knew that he was able to give his people with the longed-for peace. After four winters of terrible wars, Litos gave birth to a boy, with dark skin and very similar to his mother, being a bearer of very rare atesaki, an inheritance of the Cressid family, having one red eye and the other golden, his name was Seth, and in the last winter of the war Litos gave birth again, this time a girl, Adria, more like her father. There was nothing that Loki loved more in the world than his family, which led him to command his forces with even more determination, making enemy victory virtually impossible. He was not only a great king, he was also a man capable of carrying any burden, an exceptional speaker, with the power to bring courage and hope to an entire army, in any situation. Cruel and b****y battles took place this winter, the king had even less time to see his family, and after the mysterious disappearance of his captain, several soldiers questioned the courage of the young man of Mérit, but Loki believed him, because he was his best friend, and most of the army shared this feeling. For his post he chose the young Ehron Elesir, known for his intelligence and competence, he was the best to assume the position of captain, a wise choice. Loki and Ehron led the armies to decisive victories over Zeijadel's troops, with great help from Scyra, and the king of Lieben also made great friends with King Korn Ragnar, but unfortunately it was in this battle, close to Menegost, that Kilik and Cindy Sea, personal protectors of royalty, lost their lives.

    Loki and Ehron led half the army to join Korn's troops, leaving the couple in charge of commanding the other half, the battle was b****y, dragons appeared unexpectedly and Cindy found herself separated with only a small group of soldiers at her side, these were quickly annihilated, and she was ambushed by several enemy wizards. Even wounded, she managed to concentrate the “Ethereal Step” to escape, but at the last second she was grabbed by a goblin, and in this way she ended up even further away from her husband and allies. Debilitated, she ended up stabbed three times, falling to the ground apparently lifeless... Kilik, when he saw his wife collapsing, lost his reason, and going against the requests of his companions, he ran in her direction. With all his strength he made a real path between the enemy troops until he reached Cindy, but it was too late, she had her eyes closed and her breath was no longer felt. At this point two more dragons appeared towards the troops they were supposed to be commanding, but even kneeling, with four arrows nailed in the back and his wife in his arms, Kilik concentrated the maximum power he still had, creating an immense hawk entirely of water, blowing it up in front of the flying lizards, stunning, preventing their attacks, protecting his companions and drawing attention to himself. Now death was heading for him without escape, it was when he felt, once again, his wife's hand holding his, even unconscious, and he understood what she wanted: to do her duty to the end. The swirl of fire needs the gale to strengthen, and together they made the magic flow from their bodies again, and at the moment of the dragons' attack, Kilik left his message:

- My two little princesses, you will carry our pride starting today!

    Cindy and Kilik generated a great explosion of various elements, exterminating everything around them, only the slaughtered carcasses of the dragons remained, in addition to the witch's staff, which was set with Isil... Soon after the sky darkened, and the rain looked like a cry for their deaths, a final sacrifice for their kingdom.

    Shortly thereafter Zeon Harkonen defeated the lord of darkness and stopped the war, peace was returning and the king found himself closer to his wife and children again. But a last goblin army arrived on the continent, even with the defeat of their master they left for the battle, perhaps for carrying out their orders, or out of pure blood desire, they managed to miraculously pass through all the continent's vigils without being spotted, and they attacked a practically unprotected kingdom, for Loki, believing that the Kingdom of Lieben was safe, and was in fact if it were not for the absurd fate of the enemies, concentrated almost all his forces to the south coast. The goblins attacked as if the master's whips were on their back, the city was set on fire, the kingdom resisted bravely for almost four days, but defeat was inevitable. Litos knew that the enemy's goal was to eliminate the royal family, as they were aware that the king was not there, and she managed to send messengers to her husband before the long battle reached the castle gates. In desperation for the castle being taken, the queen ordered her children to be taken out of the kingdom immediately, as a last resort to save them, Seth, just three winters old, and Adria, newborn, they were handed over to their best knights, Rivaille Angnar and Galione Walter. Spectacularly, with the help of the last remaining forces, they broke through the enemy blockade, and on horseback, fled the kingdom being chased by groups of goblins. At the same time Loki was already desperately returning to the kingdom with most of his army, his heart squeezed by the danger his family was in, the kingdom fell, the queen had already been captured and was about to be executed when she was saved by the trumpets of the king's army, the goblins immediately forgot everything and went into combat, perhaps out of stupidity, or more likely because of the insatiable bloodlust, that was Lieben's most terrible battle, the enemies were defeated at great cost and Litos was saved by Loki himself in the room throne, but the king was already mortally wounded:

- My God, Loki! – said Litos. – You are hurt!

- My children... where are... my children? – said Loki.

- They will be fine, do not worry.

- I am grateful to be able to see your face... again...

- Do not talk, we have to heal you!

- My children... I wish I had seen them... one last time...

- Loki, no! Do not leave me! Please do not leave me!

- My children... my beloved... children...

    The king closed his eyes in the arms of his beloved wife, calling for his beloved children...

    Rivaille and Galione rode at full speed to the west of the continent with the children, followed by troops of goblins also on horseback (stolen from the kingdom), their animals were already tired and soon they could not take it anymore:

- We have to separate! – said Galione. – It may be our only chance!

- Right! – said Rivaille.

    The two protectors parted in completely opposite directions. Galione managed to enter a small but dense forest, and this helped him to outwit the enemies, saving the princess. Rivaille managed to get to the coast, and in a small abandoned fishing port there was only a simple boat, the rider saw no alternative but to place the prince and push him into the sea, he fought the goblins heroically by taking down five of them, but ended up dead.

- The child is in that boat. – said one of the killers. – And it's going to open sea.

- Does not matter. – said another. – Will wander the ocean aimlessly, and without water and food, will die sooner or later... Huhuhu...

    Litos was devastated by the loss of her husband, Ehron competently assumed the regency, the queen's last hope was her children, but only Adria returned... Seth wandered the sea for fifteen days, luckily, or the strength of fate, rains provided him with some water, on the eighth day some fish jumped into the boat, becoming raw meals that were not wasted, even at such a young age, with almost no sense of the world, the child was forced to overcome terrible suffering even for adults, miraculously surviving until the winds finally took him to the icy continent of Saitar. Two men were walking and talking on the beach, they were mercenary shinobis, perhaps returning from some mission, one of them was the mighty Riyan Tharon, the legendary shinobi said capable of performing impossible tasks, and one of the few of his clan who wished to fight in the war for the kingdom, the other was his best friend, called Sazuki:

- We should have fought alongside the king. – said Riyan. – If Zeijadel beat Balvera, we would be next.

- I even agree with what you say. – said Sazuki. – But we cannot go against the leader's orders. And luckily this did not happen.

- Yes. Fortunately...

    They spotted the boat approaching the icy beach, and upon checking they discovered a child, starving, malnourished and almost dead, Riyan helped him and took him to his village, his wife had died several winters ago, in the shinobi war, and without children he decided adopt the little boy:

- Those eyes... – said Riyan.

- I have never seen an atesaki like this... – said Sazuki.

- It's strange... This boy has something different... special...

- What you mean?

- I do not know... I just think...

- You and your intuitions. But what name will you give him?

- It will be... the name that Vixen and I planned: Thorgele.