Prologue (3/4)

A few miles away from the city of Rimebell there was a private mansion that belonged to Alexander Knightmoar, the current leader of the household. On the courtyard you could see several men swinging their swords in the air, some were striking their swords at wooden targets, some were drawing their bows and shooting targets. These were the private bodyguards of Alexander Knightmoar.

On a balcony in the mansion stood a man with a iron armor piece on his chest and trousers, on the front and back of the armor there was a symbol of a lion. On his hip was a long sword that was sheathed, on the hilt of the sword you could also see a symbol of a lion. This man was Alexander.

Alexander was 185 cm tall and had a muscular body as if he had trained his whole life. He had short brown hair, and unique emerald eyes. He was equipped with a hard leather body with a symbol of a lion in the front and back, his trousers were also made of another kind of leather that was more stretchy, they were fit and matched perfectly with his hard leather body. On his hip there was a sheathed long sword. You could see the hilt of the sword, it had many markings, but the most notable was the face of a lion in the center of the hilt.

"My lord, she is going into labor!" One of the knights told Alexander as he bowed to him.

"What? Already? Are the doctors there? Is she in pain? I'm going!" He panicked and quickly walked towards where his wife was currently in labor.

"Hehe, my lord. No need to be so nervous. It will be fine!" Said on of the knights he met on his way, this man was one of his most trusted knights, Gilbert.

"How can i not be nervous!?" He yelled at the knight, but quickly calmed down.

"Sorry, take me to her, Gilbert!" Alexander said as he just confirmed that he was indeed very nervous.

"Yes, sir!" Gilbert answered as he started walking towards where his lady was now giving birth.

"Hurry up now, i don't want to miss my first child's birth!" He said, and started walking faster.

Just as he was about to reach the room, he heard a woman screaming. He ran and almost rammed open the door to see his wife, Lilliana in labor and it seemed like she was in pain. He quickly ran up to her and help her hand.

Lilliana was a rare beauty, she had bright red hair with a small nose and

"Honey, i'm here!" Alexander said as he took her hand and let her squeeze it as hard as she needed.

"Alex....." She said softly as she breathing heavily.

*A few hours later*

His wife was sleeping while he was holding his newly born daughter in his hands, looking at her with love in his eyes and he whispered

"Lucy Knightmoar" This girl will be his pride and joy, he could feel it. Even though she was just born he knew she was gonna be someone big in the future.

As stood there holding her for several minutes, he could hear heavy footsteps approaching the door, the took his free hand and placed it on the hilt of his sword, getting ready to draw it. The door opened and showed one of his most trusted knights, Vez.

Vez had long black hair, black eyes and tall and slim. He was the fastest knight serving the Knightmoars. He had a standard Knightmoar Knight outfit, Steel body armor, trousers and greaves. Two long swords on his hips.

"My lord! We are under attack!" He yelled, shocking Alexander and angering him to the core. This was the day of his daughters birth, who dares attack them now!?

"Who are they?" He said in such a cold voice that it even frighted Vez for a second.

"We don't know, sir. They are to heavily armed to be bandits, there is no symbol on their armor to symbolize any kingdom or territory!" Vez quickly answered his lord.

"Where is Gilbert?" Alexander asked as he looked behind Vez. Just as he said that he could hear someone coming from down the hall.

"I'm here my lord, whats the orders?" Gilbert quickly answered.

Alexander nodded and sat down on the bed and woke up Lilliana, his wife.

"Honey, you need to wake up! It's time to go!" He said in a loud but soft voice to his sleeping and exhausted wife. Lilliana quickly woke up to see the worried faces of Vez, Gilbert and her husband Alexander.

"Honey, the mansion is under attack by unknown assailants, you need to go with Gilbert and Vez to get to safety" He said softly as he caressed her cheek gently.

"What? Why?" She said in a tired voice as she had a hard time fully waking up. But not before long she snapped awake and looked around the room for her daughter, Lucy. Alexander saw it and quickly gave her to him as she was sleeping in his arm.

"Here she is, darling." Lilliana looked towards her baby and smiled gently before looking back up at Alexander.

"You must come with as well!" She said, not wanting to leave without him.

"I have to defend our home with the rest of the men." He said as he stood up and started equipping his combat gear.

"My lord, they are to many. The men already know they are not going to make it, the captain told us to make sure you all made it out alive." Gilbert said as he watched his lord put his combat gear on.

This information greatly shocked both Alexander and Lilliana. Lilliana started to fear for her child's safety and quickly looked towards her husband to see what he had in mind next.

"What!? Damn, I won't leave my men to die just like that!" He said in a high and angry voice and he could hear the fighting outside.

"They are all proud to fight and die for you, my lord! Don't let them die in vain!" Vez yelled at his lord to bring him back to sense.

Alexander quickly gave in as time was of the essence and even though he trusted Vez and Gilbert with his life, he wanted to make sure that Lilliana and little Lucy were safe. They ran quickly, but silently towards the wine cellar, where there was an hidden pathway that only Alexander and Lilliana knew about. It had a magic lock on it that only Alexander could unlock and it was made to only open once and once it was closed after that, it would be very hard to open again. This was to prevent a chase in cases such as this.

Alexander unlocked the hidden door and let his wife and knights go in before he tried to close it and leave himself behind. He already made sure they were safe from the people attacking if they went in there, but he could not let his men die like this. As he attempted to say to goodbye and close the door behind him, his wife had already read his move and dragged him into the area and closed the door behind her so that he could not be stupid enough to let his daughter be father-less.

"How dare you even think about that Alex! I will not let Lucy grow up without a father!" She yelled and punched his chest and lets out small cries as she was truly scared she didn't have enough strength to actually pull him in as she did.

"I'm..... I'm sorry honey..." He said as he hugged her as he looked back towards the closed door.

"I guess its to late now anyway, I will make sure to avenge you, brothers." He said towards the door with a cold and angry tone.

They walked in the tunnel for an entire day. They took a few breaks to let Lilliana and Lucy rest as they needed it. They got out of the tunnel 32 hours after they entered it and it ended in a thick forest. This was the Zedrom forest which was south of the Koudora Kingdom, it was known to have many great dangers. Not many has ventured deep into the forest and come back to tell the tale, but they were now very deep into it and would take a few days to get back to the kingdom, to safety.

Alexander and Lilliana were walking together as Vez was out scouting and Gilbert were walking behind them with his hand on this hilt, ready for anything as he looked around all the time. After walking for about an hour Vez came back to report.

"My lord, there are humans walking towards where the exit was, they had the same armor as the men who attacked the mansion." Vez gave his report.

Apparently the same men who attack his mansion were now on their way to the exit of the tunnel only people from Knightmoar should know about. Vez also reported that there were almost a hundred men that he could count searching the woods, all in the same gear as the others.

This information made the others panic a bit, but Alexander told them to move inwards, towards the center of the woods. Hopefully they could find a place to make a temporary base while they wait for things to blow over and return.

After walking, sleeping, eating for almost 3 days into the woods they were attacked by huge red ants. These ants were unknown to them as they had not seen red ones and not this big before. They quickly tried to escape as did now know what it was capable of and there might be more of them.

After running for several hours, they were all exhausted, and it was a miracle that Lilliana even had the power to run this much as she had given birth just a few days ago.

The ant got close enough to make them have to defend themselves, after around 10 minutes of fighting they managed to slay it and sighed in relief. But then the ground started shaking and several identical ants appeared and one even bigger ant.

"Run! This is an order from your lord! Take Lilliana and Lucy and run! Make sure they live!" Alexander said as he readied himself to fight the ants.

"Noooo!! Alexander!!!!" Aliana screamed as the knights were dragging her as they tried to get away.

They did not want to leave him, but he made a direct order to save his wife and child, they had to follow it! Alexander started attacking the ants and it didn't take long before he was over powered and were laying on the ground exhausted, looking towards his knights and wife running away when he saw his wife looking back right as he felt a sharp sting in his shoulder, he could see that on of the ants had pierced him with his leg and the smaller ants started dragging him down one of the holes they emerged from. Lilliana looked in horror as she saw her husband being stabbed by a leg and dragged away.

Alexander woke up a few house later in a very dark area, his entire body, except his head was in a thick cocoon of some sort of web.

'Web? aren't these ants?' he thought as he tried to free himself, but was powerless to even budge it.

He started looking around the place he was. He could hear things moving along the walls and ceilings, then he saw something close to him move and it was huge! As he saw what it was he almost screamed in terror as he had never seen such a big ant, or monster for that matter before in his life.

The ant was over 10 meters tall and bright red in color, this was without a doubt the queen. He was now very very afraid as he wondered why he was even still alive, the ant queen just stared at him as if he was something she had never seen before.

The staring went on for about 30 minutes when the queen suddenly made a fierce noise and looked towards one of the ceilings. He continued making noises every now and then, then after a few minutes she backed away a few steps as if it she was scared of what she was looking at.

'What is it on the ceiling that made her so afraid' Thought Alexander as he could not see that far, it was to dark.

Suddenly the queen let out a scream of sorts, very loud, it hurt in Alexanders ears. She started stomping around in anger all around the place for almost an entire hour. The earth was shaking all the time. Alexander had no idea what was going on, but then the queen stopped and started moving even closer to him and then used on of its legs to push the cocoon he was in, making him roll around on the floor. It then started throwing him around the big area as if he was a ball she was playing with. What ever angered her made him take the damage of it. After a while Alexander passed out.

He woke up again, unknown how long he was out. But then he suddenly heard a voice.

"Take me to him" Said a man, he could hear it was quite far away, he still could not see anything in this darkness. But he heard the ant queen moving towards him, which made him freak out and tried to get out of the cocoon that was around him. After around half a minute he gave up, exhausted, he heard steps moving towards him.

"That's him? Is he alive?" The voice asked, the ant queen let out a small noise as if confirming his question.

'Wait, what? Monsters can't understand human languages, did it just answer him?' If this was the case, then that "man" must also be some sort of monster. Why did he want him alive? What was going on? Alexander was very confused and scared at the moment, when he felt the cocoon around him disappearing into nothingness. Confused and still scared, he quickly stood up and looked towards where he had heard the voice.

He could see a young man, he can't be a lot older than Lilliana, Alexander thought. Lilliana was in her mid twenties and this man must also be around that age. And behind him he could see the huge ant queen following him as a pet.

"Who are you?" he asked the man, getting ready to defend himself.

"I'm Colt. I came to get you." He said in a emotionless voice as he turned around towards the queen.

"I'm taking him to my place, try not to attack any more humans unless they attack you first." He said towards the queen. The queen responded with a noise and looked at Alexander.

"Because i like humans, what other reason do you need?" He said in a slightly angered voice as he looked at the queen. The queen backed away a few steps as if it was very afraid of this young man.

'Who is he?? Why is he here? To save me? Why?' He had so many questions right now. The man walked towards the man and sat down cross-legged on the ground in front of him.

"Sit down and talk for a bit, i'm bored." He said, which made Alexander speechless.

'Bored? What the hell is going on!?' He was even more confused now, but when he saw the queen removing herself from the area and no more crawling sounds on the wall, he sat down in front of this man, hoping to get some answers.

After a few minutes of complete silence, Alexander finally decided to talk, hoping he could take him away from there, hopefully his family was safe.

"Why are you here?" Alexander asked the young man.

"To safe you i guess. That girl was pretty sad, thinking you were dead." He said as he looked the man into the eyes. This of course made Alexander panic, thinking this man had his wife in custody or something.

"Where is she!? Where is Lilliana!?" He screamed at him, she was more important than anything, aswell as Lucy!

"She and the knights are camping outside my house, they are safe there." He said as he moved his hand towards his mouth and a cup appeared in his hands and he started sipping whatever was inside. Confusing Alexander even more, but at least he calmed down.

"Is she and Lucy alright?" He asked in a concerning voice.

"Yes, Lilliana and Lucy are safe. Right now they are camping outside my house. The knight, Gilbert is out hunting for food for them to eat." He said as he continued drinking his tea.

"What happen after we separated?" He asked, hoping for a good answer.

Colt started telling him what he had done, up to the point where they arrived at his house.

"Then i got distracted by her cries as she whispered your name, thinking you were dead. And as i'd already done so much for them, why not help you as i could sense you were still alive." He said making Alexander feel gratitude towards the young man. But he was still curious about who he was, or what he was.

"But who are you, and why would you go through all this trouble to help us?" He asked, hoping he didn't offend him.

"I was bored and i like humans, you are a fascinating people." He said with small smile. This was the first time Alexander saw his facial expression change, making him believe him even more.

'Humans as me? So he's not human?' He thought and he looked towards Colt.

"What are you then? You said you like humans, but you look very human to me. But you're not human, right?" He asked Colt hoping to get an answer.

"Hmm... I guess you humans would call me a God." He said with a straight face. Shocking Alexander greatly.

It was known that Gods usually came down to the mortal realm, but it used such a huge amount of energy to move them there, that everyone within at least several millions of miles could sense it. The two highest ranking gods were usually the only ones that came down to the mortal realm, those were the two Gods of Life, Elo and his wife Godia. But he had never heard of a god named Colt before, what was he the god of?

"I'm sorry my lord, but i have not heard of you before." He said as he kneeled towards him, hoping to not have offended him. Even if he was not a god, he was still in charge of his life at this moment, and probably his family's life as well, he had to make sure to now offend him.

"I haven't been here for eons. But last time i was hear, i had a very good time. I've always liked this world." He said with a smile.

"This world?" Asked Alexander as he, as well as every other human did, they thought this was the only world. The gods had even confirmed it when they last descended a few millennia ago.

"There are endless amount of worlds out there, not all of them have living being in them though. Some have only elves, some have only dwarfs, some only have humans as intelligent species. Its truly wonderful to see all of them" He said with a smile as he continued.

"But i've always liked Alfheim the most. Last time i was here i spent several hundreds of thousands of years here before i moved on. It was the longest i had ever stayed in one place before. Usally i get tired of the place after a thousand years." He said looking towards the ceiling.

"I wonder if that brat Elo is still around" He said in low voice, but enough for Alexander to hear.

'Brat Elos? He called the God of Life a brat??' Alex was now super curious about him, but they had already been talking for long time now, he wanted to see his wife.

"Can i see my wife and child?" He asked him as he looked towards the ground.

"Of course, i was just bored and wanted a chat. Lets go." He said as he stood up, making Alexander also quickly standing up waiting to walk when he suddenly got blinded by the brightness. After rubbing his eyes for a few minutes he could see he stood inside a beautiful wooden house. He looked towards Colt and saw he had laid down on a couch nearby.

"They are outside" He said as he closed his eyes, looking as if he tried to get some sleep.

Alexander quickly turned around, opening the door slowly, hoping that this was not a sick joke, dream or anything. The door creaked open and he could see a fire being lit, Gilbert holding some meat, his wife and child.... His wife and child. He started tearing up when he saw them. He pushed the door open and started jogging towards them and the door closed behind him.

"Lilliana!" He yelled as he ran towards his wife.