Harbinger: The Four Knights

Ancient Artifacts

After the defeat of the envoy that controlled the knight of the raging flames, everyone came out only to find that their pride and joy have dealt with the problem and saw Luke lying down carefully on the ground surrounded by fragrant flowers. Seeing how things turned out, they immediately run by Luke’s side and then saw another knight standing in front of Amon. “Young master, may we ask who is that person in a knight’s armor? Is he with the envoy that master Luke speak of?” one of the elders asked out of concern since their young master is standing in front of such a person that Luke warned them that he will take care of personally. “Oh him? He is one of father’s friends that he always talk about. Isn’t that great?” Amon said with a huge smile on his face as he points to the knight in front of him.

The man they spoke of was amazed beyond belief after seeing the community that they thought had long disappeared as the empire had said is alive and flourishing after all those years. He then turned his head to his former comrade and saw how the demons are on guard because of what happened. [Impossible- so the empire had lied to me when they said that it is time to reclaim the shadow lands. No wonder Peter did not trust them and told me not to go to the empire even if it means opposing the empire itself. Now I understand what he meant when he said not to trust anyone from the empire, he must have known this from the beginning.] Mark thought after seeing them and his former subordinate. He bows his head and introduce himself to the elders of the shadow lands. 

“Good day elders, I apologize for what happened. The empire seems to have gained control over my me through something but I meant no harm.” He explains as he shakes his head but the elders and the other residents do not seem to believe his words.

Amon stepped in and told the elders that what he said was right and showed them the thing that the envoys were holding the moment he came to aide his father in the fray. “Calm down elders, this is the thing that me and Abel saw that one of those guys who came here with him was holding. I probably split it in half earlier but this thing released ominous aura earlier, and its disgusting.” Amon told them as he showed them the orb split in half, the elders’ eyes widened after seeing the thing that supports the knight’s claim. “Impossible! That is something that had should have been lost for ages! How did that thing fall into their hands?” one of the elders said as the others had the same expression as he had. 

The elder with a staff that he carries every time with him then summoned a purple flame and burned the orb until there is nothing left and at the same time, Luke woke up and witnessed the burning of the same orb that he deemed ominous earlier when he was fighting against it, his focus turned to the others whom he remembered that had come along with his friend only to find out that they have all been dealt with and the culprit was his son covered in dry blood. He strained his eyes brows after seeing his son covered in dry blood and called out his name with an angry tone as the young Amon cower in fright after hearing his father calling him. “AMON!”

The clean up was left to the residents who gladly took the job without any complaints. “We need to have an urgent meeting about the artifact that I burned earlier, I hope you all understand.” The elder pleaded as the residents responded with a smile. “There is no need to worry about it elder, we will take care of it.” They responded with a kind tone as the elders bow their heads and left with the knights to talk about the situation. The elders arrived and witness Luke giving Amon an earful of sermon for disobeying his orders but then his wife, Kalista and some of the elders defended Amon. “I know that he disobeyed your order dear but if it weren’t for our child stepping up, you would have –“ a tear run down his wife’s cheeks just by thinking about what could have happened if her son wasn’t there to give his father a hand.

Seeing how grateful her wife is towards his son, Luke’s anger subsided and warned his son not to do something so reckless anymore. “I’m sorry- its just that he is quite young to be doing such things. Taking a man’s life is no easy task and it will take a toll on his one day when he realizes how wrong it really is by the time he grows up.” He added as he pat his wife’s back to stop her from crying.

HIC! HIC! HIC! HIC! HIC! HIC! HIC! HIC! HIC!

“I’m sorry dad, I just didn’t want them you lay a hand on you since you are so defenseless. I just couldn’t let them go after what they have done to you.” Amon said with a slightly angered tone but kept his voice soft. His father knows what his son’s intentions are and so let him off with that sermon as the elders have arrived anxiously waiting for the meeting to start. “I’m really sorry for the delay elders. I’m just worried about my son here after pulling that off.” Luke apologized as the elders somehow share his worries. “Don’t worry, we fully understand your worries.” The elder with the staff said as the rest of the elders come inside their house.

Before the meeting starts, Luke introduces his friend who he had not seen for so long but the leaders told him that he had already made his introduction thus introduced themselves in turn. “Oh- was that the case? Haha- I didn’t know!” Luke exclaimed. The elder then cleared his throat, hinting that they will start the meeting properly and ask everybody else inside the house go out for a moment, anybody except for the two knights and elders.

“Based from what the young master showed us earlier, it has become apparent that some artifacts that had been lost for ages still continued to be manufactured or maybe created. That orb earlier that all of us have seen is called, Heptic’s Eye. It has the ability to hypnotize a person and turn him into a puppet but the real Heptic’s Eye is not something that can be split into two parts easily, creating it is such a workload that it needs as least a hundred years to perfect only a single Eye alone but for them to create such a lower version of it then it should just take at least a short amount of time to be created which is really worrying.” The elder said with a weak tone as he turns to the knights who were surprised about what they heard.

 “It was my firs time seeing that kind of thing but what are you implying, great elder?” Luke asks realizing the devastation if those things were to be used to high ranking officials of each empire and start a war with each other. “Those artifacts, they should not be on the hands of humans.” Mark muttered as he bit his lip in frustration that he had been subject to that experience without him knowing anything. The elders saw his reaction and the elder with the staff in his hand agreed to what he said.

“Yes- that is something that should not have been in the hands of humans. It originated from us demons after all.” The great elder said immediately making the knights’ head turn to them with shock. “What do you mean great elder?” Mark muttered as Luke added. “He must have meant that some demon is behind all this or maybe worst- the empire had their hands on something that gives them the ability to create such things.” he said that the elder immediately agreed on. 

“That is precisely what I am about to say, we, our great grandfathers have witnessed a creation of the said artifacts once in our lifetime but we were kids then and do not pay it no mind since it is out of our concern. As far as I know from hearing how the adults talk about it, the ones who can create such artifacts are demons alone.” The great elder said as the other elders nodded in support to what he just told the knights. “Then that raises another question, how did humans manage to create such things? Human bodies are not capable to holding immense mana unlike demons.” Luke said but then almost immediately Mark slams his fist on the table angrily as red flames started to appear on the layer of his armor. 

[Mark?] Luke thought to himself after seeing his friend’s reaction. [Does he know anything?]

“Do you have any idea how they did it, young lad?” the great elder ask out of curiosity and the disheartened knight nodded his head. “Yes, more or less. Those bastards- have been monopolizing mana core from large beasts for ten years now. Adding into account what you said that only demons can create such things, it occurred to me that the only things closer to you in terms of holding immense mana are the beasts of chaos.” The knight’s voice sounded like he is about to burst into anger but holds himself down. The elders and Luke were shocked after hearing that the empire has been monopolizing the said cores which the great elder confirms that with that core, the humans are able to create the artifacts that should have been lost. “Goodness me, looks like this has gotten a little worse.” The great elder mutter to himself with how the things are developing. “Great elder, by any chance, will the empire know that the artifact broke?” Mark ask the elder who immediately shook his head in response. 

“There is no way for that to happen, Heptic’s Eye are only used to hypnotize, they are not capable of being sensed if one were to be destroyed but one thing is uncertain, the time that the humans have been making the artifacts- the great war waged ages ago- you may not have been born by that time so who knows how long they were creating such artifacts and how many it had been.”

The only question that remained in their head as they silently ponder about it the rest of the meeting before ending it when there was nothing left to be talked about.