December 12th, 2024
It was a place where time didn’t exist and form didn’t exist either. Almost like the depths of space, but with no form and no objects wandering through the sky. It was a sky with no stars in it, but while it was missing stars, there were indeed lights. Bright lights that flashed in multiple colors, ranging from lighter shades of violet and pink to deeper blues and intermediate greens that sat in between the other colors in the middle of the spectrum. In the middle of it all, there was white. Something emanated a light bright enough that the object inside was just about invisible, the projected light making it impossible to see what was beyond it.
In the middle of that light, there was an artifact that could kill gods. One that had been created with the full knowledge that someday it might be required to use it to kill a god, and a powerful one at that. Charged with magical energy, it was also powerful enough to light up a place like this, even as everywhere else in the realm was… Empty. It was almost like a void, but it wasn’t quite. This entire place was the work of someone who had specifically crafted it this way. The work of the same person who had forged the god killing spear and given the golden weapon its charge. The work of someone that couldn’t be human. There was no human on that level of ability, or even near it.
So who had forged this void and the artifact within it?
That was unknown. The figure that had made this place wasn’t here anymore. Had been wiped out, more accurately, and wasn’t even remembered by either humanity or by some of the pantheon themselves. It hadn’t been a fight, it had been a destruction. One that left nothing left. Even the victor said nothing about the fight that had happened between powerful beings, because doing so would reveal that the fight had happened in the first place. And if a defeated enemy was remembered, they could be sympathized with. They could still gain defiant followers, and that couldn’t be allowed.
But this god killing spear, it was powerful enough to remain even despite attempts to destroy it. Really, a symbol of just how important its creator had been at one point.
Suddenly, there was movement within the void. More light shot outwards from the god killing spear, a sign that it was emitting powerful magical energy. The light streaked out in all directions, the item inside the swirling lights turning and spinning as it released energy. It was fulfilling its other purpose, aside from killing gods. When humanity needed its power the most, it would send that power to those who deserved it. This, not its original purpose, was what it was known for by those on Earth. The best people weren’t always selected, but that was said to be for a reason too. The spear was divine, it did nothing without a reason. And its power was behind the rise of some of Earth’s greatest heroes.
Of course, there wasn’t a crisis on Earth right now that would make most people believe they needed these heroes to rise. But the spear, it wasn’t wrong. And it believed that such a crisis was here, and that it warranted releasing its power. It remained to be seen what those reasons were.
But they could never be wrong.
And a new generation of Marked were about to appear because of them.
December 29th, 2024
The knight was the only one standing in the room with the large reflection pool, late at night.
Well, calling her a knight would be a bit inaccurate. She was only someone that dressed like one sometimes. A member of the Holy Inquisition, she was an agent of the Church of Light, a servant of the Light Goddess who was committed to stopping evil in the world. To doing things like clearing out vampire infestations and handling demons and other supernatural creatures that weren’t supposed to exist in this realm. They said that the members of Inquisition were like modern day knights, or at least the modern day version of the idealized knights of legend.
It was the reason why their ceremonial uniform was the armor of a knight, underneath the black and white that was draped over them. The knight in the reflection area, however, wasn’t wearing her entire uniform. She was headed to bed soon, and as such, she had already taken part of it off. The armored gloves, the helmet, those had been removed. Her sword, which was both long in length and wide in diameter, was resting safely inside the sheath at her side. She stared at her reflection in the pool, her piercing eyes looking back at her as well as her tied up blonde hair. She had to tie it, or it wouldn’t work with her helmet.
She didn’t look like someone that had been in many battles, despite her skill in magic and her rank within the Inquisition. She was good looking, even if she wasn’t a supermodel. Her face was also one of a noble, one that showed the looks of the Avella family and made it clear to everyone just who she was, as their heir. No one would mistake her for someone else. And yet, that position as heir was where many of her problems had began. It was the reason why she was standing her, closing her eyes and thinking rather than returning to her room like she should be doing at this time late at night.
Her armor made a shifting sound as she dropped to her knees. “Oh mother of light, I ask of you, why do you allow your servant to suffer like this?” she prayed, her eyes shut as tight as she could make them. She allowed herself to fall forward more, and so she was on not just her knees, but her hands too. She allowed her face to touch the stone ground, shivering slightly from the feeling. It wasn’t a warm night, here in northern Italy. “What have I ever done to deserve such a terrible affliction and such a cruel fate? Why have you allowed me to come under this curse to never find happiness?”
Her prayer was an intense one, and she found herself sweating despite the cold weather. Her voice took on an edge that it hadn’t had when she begun speaking. “What have I ever done against you? When have I betrayed your will or committed an act against you? When have I ever chosen to look out for myself instead of following your holy ways? What… Have I ever done that deserves being repaid like this…? How… Have I angered the mother of light?”
The knight almost jumped, startled. She heard movement and she looked up to find that she wasn’t indeed alone here. Even though she had been when she showed up. The other person that was in the large courtyard hadn’t taken a normal path inside, either. She hadn’t walked through one of the doors, but she seemed to have… Risen out of the pool itself? The knight had been staring into the pool not long ago, and nothing had been there, but something had apparently changed in the time since then.
She was looking up at the most beautiful woman that she had ever seen, one that could only look as she did because of some kind of supernatural influence. Everything about her drew the eye of the knight, from her striking eyes which seemed to shift colors depending on the way the light hit them, to the way that her skin glowed in a way that was otherworldly and hard to describe to someone that wasn’t there. She looked human in form, but at the same tie, she definitely didn’t seem human. Especially when she was levitating. The knight wouldn’t stare for long, however, before the levitating woman spoke.
And her voice sounded just as heavenly. “Rise, Cassandra Renata Miniati de Avella. For out of everyone here, you are the one with a pure heart…”
January 3rd, 2025
They had come from various places. Many of them had traveled thousands of miles and ended up here, in remote Nepal, where they would receive their training in the same way that the last group of Marked had, thirty years ago. The only problem was, the Marked had lost thirty years go. They weren’t the victorious heroes that they had been known as in the past, but failures whose battles with the villain Autarch had resulted in a stalemate at best and a terrible defeat at worst. The world had finally wondered, did having the mark not actually make one a hero? Were they simply regular mages who had been affected by some phenomenon, and not chosen ones?
Students had been arriving all day, but now, they were roughly all here. They had been told to wait in the courtyard before heading into the other parts of the monastery, which included the building that had been converted into dorms. Well, it had originally been converted years and years ago when the original group moved in. They had just refreshed it a little bit for the new students, but most of the buildings still needed some fixing up. There were holes in roofs, holes in walls, places where the floor was broken, windows that needed repairing in some places. And of course, there were the animal infestations to deal with.
The students would get over it. If the instructors running this place had repaired it fully, they would have been forced to delay training, which wouldn’t have helped the students at all. And if they wanted more comforts, they would have to fix the monastery up themselves, just like the first group had. Finally, the figure standing in front of the now assembled group spoke. “Welcome, everyone, to Lynwood Academy. Named after our former teacher, this place is not a school where you will learn regular skills to get a job with in the normal world, but one where you will learn the skills needed to save that world and protect it from the greatest dangers.”
The man speaking was Ander Laskaris. The one that had been chosen by the other instructors to lead them. None of the students now would know it, but while Ander hadn’t been the most powerful of the group in his day, he was one of the ones that had been smart enough to stay alive. Others hadn’t been so lucky, many of them because of Anders’ decisions. It was one of the reasons Ander had refused initially, before being dragged here by the woman in red that was standing next to him, who had an appearance that was both motherly and dangerous. Maybe it was the combination red eyes and jet black hair that did it.
“I will admit that I didn’t want to teach any of you. You all know what happened the last time the Marked were selected. We thought we would save the world, and we ended up failing to stop the rise of one of the most evil mages in history, a tyrant who would take away all freedom to establish law and order. I have no intention of leading another generation to their deaths, and so I initially refused. I feel like that’s something I have to be honest about,” said Ander, speaking in a rather casual tone for someone that was the leader. “However, I was visited in Thunder Bay and dragged out of an early retirement by the woman you see next to me, Reinhild. Reinhild is also one of the Marked, from my generation. She helped greatly in the fight against Autarch and you will report to her for all physical training.”
Ander paused, looking the group over one more time. “On the other hand, I will be your instructor for all magic related matters as well as strategy, tactics, and anything else on the strategic side of things. We will have other instructors arriving in the coming months, including some who have worked with the great mage houses, but for now, the two of us will be handling your training. Now that you know how things will work, I believe it’s almost time for you to enter your dorms and to begin cleaning out the rest of the monastery. First, however, I will ask if anyone has questions. If you do, ask them now. You’ll be busy for much of the rest of the day, after all, and I have some things to handle soon.”
