As promised, the very next morning the ship was ready to set
sail. Riku and Link made sure that they
had everything they needed, and then gave the captain the go ahead to weigh
anchor and cast off. With that, the
sails unfurled and they made their way out into open sea. Link looked back at the port as they began to
head out, and had a small sense of regret.
But once he saw the open sea again, that feeling dissipated. He reassured himself.
“I made a promise with Malon. I will
come home after this is all over.” He
stood at the front of the ship looking out, then Riku walked up behind him with
the swords that Eraqus had given to them.
“What’s this about Riku?”
“You won’t stand a chance against the many things we will be facing when we
land. I am going to teach you the way of
the sword.”
“But, I already know how to use a sword.
Do I really need this training?”
“Yes you do. It is one thing to simply
use a sword as a sharp object to hurt things with, but it is completely
different when it comes to fighting with skill.
Observe.” He tossed Link his
sword and showed him two oranges.
“I will toss this orange up and you slice it.”
Link drew the sword, and Riku tossed up the orange. Link took one big swing, and cut it right in
half.
“Very good Link. But now I will show you
the difference.” Link tossed up the
orange, and Riku started slashing with such quick movements that he couldn’t
keep up with them. When the orange
landed, it was cut into eight equally sliced pieces. Link couldn’t think of anything to say in
response. Riku just simply put down the
sword, picked up one of the orange slices, and helped himself.
“That’s amazing. How did you learn to do
that?” Riku groaned a little bit when he
heard this.
“Did you not pay any attention at all when we were at Eraqus’ palace? I was his student, he trained me, I died, now
I’m back. Seriously. Pay more attention to things in life.” Riku picked up his sword and faced Link.
“Now, I shall pass on to you what Eraqus gave to me 3000 or so years ago.”
Three days passed and Link felt like he could take on the
world. He and Riku had been training
almost non-stop to get ready for whatever lied before them when they
landed. The ship had just caught sight
of Gueron, and was preparing to make its way around to the western shores. Link walked up to Riku who was staring
straight at the land before them and was also looking at a sea chart.
“Say Riku, how did you manage to find all these things about the portals
anyway? I thought that information
belonged to the Guardians alone.”
“Okay Link. This will take a while so
you had better sit down. Long ago,
before this world came to be, the Old Gods ruled over the plain that was the
world. Each of them were married to
another god or goddess, and amongst these couple were the three rulers of the
Old Gods, the high gods, and their wives.
That world was a peaceful one.
One where gods and mortals lived together in harmony. But then there were gods who had children
with mortals. Then those children gained
god-like abilities. And with god-like
abilities come god-like temptations. One
of these beings was named Ribeall. He
was the only child of one of the high gods brothers and a mortal woman. Ribeall had an adopted mortal brother named
Rabenan. He was jealous that his brother
had a special power and he did not. All
his life he plotted ways to gain power so that he might be considered equal to
his brother. When he was about the age of 23, Rabenan gained an awful idea. He thought that by killing a god, he could
gain his power. He tried this theory on
his own father. It had long been assumed
that gods were invulnerable to death, but due to being in the mortal plain,
death’s touch came even to them. And it
turned out that Rabenan was right. When
his father passed, he absorbed his father’s powers and abilities in order to
keep the universal equation balanced.
For if a god died and his power went nowhere, then there would be
disharmony and the world would die.
Rabenan figured this out when he also absorbed his father’s knowledge
about the order of the world. But
Rabenan wasn’t satisfied with what he had obtained. So he struck down his own half-brother for the sole purpose of continuing his lust for power. And then another god. Then another. He realized that with every god he slayed, he
would become even stronger. So he killed
more gods. He killed the god of power,
the god of food, any god you could have thought of back then, he killed them. Then a great idea hit him. He decided to kill the three high gods and make
their power his own. With his power, no
being in the mortal plain could stand up to him, and he overpowered the high
gods easily. With their death, their
power became his own. However, due to
his corrupt soul, he couldn’t control all of the power that he now possessed in
his weak body. So he transformed his
body with what power he could control into a large beast with flaming
hair. With that, he became Demise, god
of darkness. He thought his victory was
assured and that everything now belonged to him. But the high gods had an emergency plan in
case something like this happened. Their
wives, the three goddesses were given the power to take the power of the gods
and distribute it to whomever they chose.
So they took all the powers that Demise had stolen from the world. He couldn’t stop them because the failsafe in
the goddess’s power was that not even the strength of the high gods could stop
the power of the goddesses. However, the
side effect was that the goddesses couldn’t touch the power of the high gods
either. So while Demise was weakened, he
still had the power of the three strongest gods. So with no options left, the goddesses
sacrificed some of their power to create a golden power to lock away
Demise. Each part of the high gods that
he had stolen was stored in a small part of the golden power. It was locked away deep in the dungeons of
the observatory, and was to be guarded by the god of the dead. With that settled, the goddesses distributed
the power equally to chosen mortals, and were named the new gods. To avoid something like what transpired on
the planet ever again, the new gods and the goddesses left the mortal plain
without the presence of gods. However,
rather than leave the mortal realm unprotected, they set up the Guardians
system. When mortals died, they would be
judged to see if they were worthy enough to serve in the Guardians for all
time. But when a soldier dies, he wishes
to move on, so naturally, unrest is likely to arise. While the god of death resided in the observatory,
he wished to be with his fellow gods. So
he would from time to time go to the realm of the new gods and leave the
defense of the golden power to the Guardians.
For centuries this was just fine, until one guardian who was fed up with
living was on guard duty to protect the golden power and wanted to move on to the sky. Demise sensed his darkness, and tempted him
to touch the golden power. The guardian
did just that, and Demise possessed his body and transformed it into the body
of the god of darkness. He then began to
lay waste to the Observatory, and once he finished with that, he laid waste to
the mortal world. He turned it into a
fiery pit of darkness, and then selected a few mortals and Guardians with
darkness in their hearts to be his attendants and construct a device that would
allow him to travel to the land of the new gods. It took him about a millennium, but they
finally completed the gate. They then
went on to slaughter the realm of the new gods.
But once again, Demise was halted by the goddesses. Since Demise had been sealed away in a power
of their own making, they had control over him.
They sealed him within an orb of darkness that was destined to stay
hidden within the realm of the gods forever.
However, when Demise was sealed, his followers activated a prophecy
spell. That one day the armies of Demise
would return and put Demise on the throne of the gods. The goddesses made sure that this would never
happen by sealing the passageway that the enemy used to reach the land of the
gods. They still feared that somehow
Demise would make sure that his prophecy came true. So the goddesses created a new mortal world
separate from the one that Demise destroyed.
The goddesses took the golden power and placed it within the new
Observatory for the Guardians. They decided
that the prayers that the mortals would send to the goddesses would be stored
inside the golden power, and one day it would be strong enough to destroy the
world that held the armies of Demise. So
they set up a false myth that whoever touched the golden power would be granted
a wish. Rather, if someone of light
touched the power, it would destroy the world that held the dark armies, and if
someone of darkness touched it, it would split into three pieces. But the goddesses put too much power into the
golden power. It not just had the power
to do what it was intended to do, but it also had the power to grant the wish
of anyone with a balance in their heart of power, wisdom, and courage. They could not undo this act, so they rather
trained the Guardians to have their elders trained in each of these three
categories so that when the time came, they could not just destroy the dark
armies, but also reunite gods and mortals once and for all without darkness in
the world. This information was lost
with time, and had gotten warped over the many centuries.” Link had nearly fallen asleep at this point,
but understood enough to ask,
“Uh, Riku, how do you know all
this? You didn’t even know this until we
went to the capital city.”
“Eraqus has always been a collector of old things. He feels that the more he collects, the more
he can share with the world in the far future since he is immortal. It turns out the Goddesses decided to spread
the myth out through books and old tablets.
While it has rotted away in some parts overtime, their secrets are still
able to be found. While some parts of
the history of how this world came to be may have changed, it would seem that
the gates to the heavens are as real as ever.
Several archeologists discovered them several centuries ago. While I was dead, archeologists found a gate
deep within a mountain that is a giant stone with markings that they assumed
were related to the goddesses, but I know are actually related to the
Guardians. I recognized the markings as
soon as I saw them in the scroll. So no
matter what happens, I have found a way back to where I belong.”
“Um, so what does that have to do with me again?”
“I fear that something horribly wrong is happening at the observatory, and it
might require a mortal’s strength to figure it out. That is why when we get to our destination at
the gate, I will cast a spell on you that will allow you to see and pass
through the gate to the heavens. Trust
me on this one. Please.”
“Well, I’m here now, so I guess I trust you.”
Riku walked off to talk to the captain.
Link was confused. He thought to
himself,
“I followed you all the way to this point, what makes you think I don’t trust
you now?”
“Elitran, have you located the courage yet?”
“Not yet my lord. It seems to try and
evade us. I think that the goddesses
have tried to hide the courage from us in order to keep our plans from being
completed.”
“No matter. The other two pieces still
call out to the courage. All we need to
do is make sure the power and the wisdom are both on the battlefield. Prepare the Reapers for the upcoming battles.”
“At once my lord.”
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