’Five Warbringers are dead.’
Those words ca harder to Elesha than they seed. Her vision went blurry for a brief second, montarily unable to believe the current reality.
Warbringers were a thing of legends to the world of Vortharion. Whenever there was one even so much as passing by, entire nations celebrated. People flooded the streets, sang their nas, and cheered at the top of their lungs.
Elesha could still rember the day she saw her first Warbringer. It had been a cold morning, winter, when the snow was thick enough to reach the knees of a clueless eight year old.
She had worn every coat and sweater she owned and forced her father to take her out at dawn, just to watch the legend pass.
That day, she and her father had to fight through millions just to get a chance to see the figure of legend.
Elesha had been awed. She had seen only one figure move through the roaring crowd on a warhorse. There had been no army behind him. No retinue of soldiers. Not even a single guard in sight.
Just one figure. Back straight. Eyes forward. Aura overwhelming.
There had been millions present that day, but to Elesha, it was as though the man was the only one that mattered.
It was then she realized why there hadn’t been any soldiers or guards with him.
Simple, there was no need. He was a Warbringer. A weapon of mass destruction. A figure that inspired both fear and awe in the hearts of the Vortharion people.
Elesha had burned that image into her mind that day. She had wanted nothing more than to beco one. A thing of legend. A predator that walked above all.
She had achieved her goal, and she had been proud of it. She too had beco a figure of legend, one that could move nations by rely passing through. Yet, the mory of that cold morning still remained etched in her heart.
What she had felt. What she had seen. Warbringers were supposed to be unshakable. Predators wherever they went.
But as Elesha gazed through the thick haze that choked the skies for miles, a shudder traveled through her body.
That image shattered.
They had all gathered here today to ambush and kill a child god. They were supposed to be the predators.
Yet why did it feel like they were the prey?
There was a mont of silence, and during it, Elesha took in the chaos. Then, multiple lights ignited in the skies, burning through the haze.
Elesha watched, body frozen, as the remaining Warbringers unleashed their massive auras.
So cloaked in blinding light. So darkness. So blazing fire. And many, their bodies filled with so much mana, they had taken its color.
The power of their world, Vortharion, was control over mana using only the mind. It was akin to performing countless calculations in the head just to wield it.
The strength of a person’s cognitive capacity, how fast they could think, how quickly they could comprehend, that was the asure of power.
Warbringers stood at the pinnacle of it. Their cognitive speed was second only to their god, Nex. They had the power to manipulate any form of mana they desired, with just a thought.
Their skies erupted in a blinding cascade of light, tearing through the choking haze. Nine figures, wreathed in roaring light, scread toward a child no older than twenty.
And Elesha watched, trembling, as the sa child countered every single one of the Warbringers’ powers like they were nothing.
Fire was snuffed out. Darkness dispersed. Space stopped responding. And mana... a do of it ford around him, and within it, only he had control.
Then, his katana slashed.
Nine beings of legend had co. And nine died.
All that remained in their roaring wake were their bloodied pieces, plumting from the skies.
’Th-they’re all dead.’ Elesha felt like her eyes were lying to her. Their plan had failed. Atticus had proven to be far more than they’d ever feared.
Even if it was to end in their loss, even in death, she had expected a brutal fight. A battle full of near deaths and desperate struggle. But this... this was a slaughter.
The realization struck her.
The child god... he was soone even their Star had been cautious of.
They had never stood a chance.
Then, through the chaos of the battlefield, Elesha t the pair of golden eyes again, and the world froze.
In her ears, the thunder of flaming debris crashing down vanished. The screams of millions being cut to pieces disappeared. Even the rumble of the skies ceased to exist.
To Elesha, in that mont, only one thing remained.
That pair of golden eyes.
And as the biting scent of death ca for her, one final thought echoed in her mind.
’I hope you make it in ti. I’m sorry, Nex... I failed.’
Slash.
...
Oberon hovered beneath the scorching sun, face grim.
So ti ago, the blue light that had replaced their sun had suddenly vanished, bringing back the golden sun and the familiar rays they all rembered. To Oberon, that had been the first sign of change.
A change he was currently thanking his star for suspecting, and acting on. If he hadn’t, the consequences would’ve been catastrophic.
"I can’t believe I doubted you, Oberon."
He heard the voice of the woman he had grown close to over the years. Too close.
Ever since his wife died, he had never seen any need to take another. But Jenera... he didn’t know why, maybe it was her aura, her fierce and warm mind. Her constant strive for change.
He couldn’t explain it. She simply did what most won couldn’t. Move his heart.
Oberon shook the thoughts away. Now wasn’t the ti for such unruly things.
Still, he couldn’t help it. He realized what she’d just called him.
Oberon.
Everyone called him that. But sohow, he preferred the nickna Jenera had given him more than his real na.
So paragons had once dared to call him Obi, and he’d buried their political careers on the spot.
Only she could call him that.
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