Drought war

At the break of dawn, the day after the fight between Ethan and Solis, Joel went back to the mountain cabin to continue with his intense training. He seemed to have awakened his magical powers after years of frustrations and anxiety.

Most people thought he didn't have magic, though it was rare for a descendant of a royal first born son to be born without magic. It was only until he conjured the unknown white flames that everyone knew he had magic and not just any magic. He possessed something never seen in the recorded history of mankind.

What are these white flames? And what more is his stubborn body hiding?

It was hard for him growing up in the village full of quad mages, boasting incredible magical powers. Especially sharing blood with the first sword of Yoshino, Uriel.

He often wandered off alone and stayed by himself most of the time. His siblings and Cassie were the ones who were always encouraging him and engaging him in their exploits so that he won't feel lonely. Cassie looked everywhere, even as far as Botswania, searching for anyone or at least a book to help him tap into his magic but she failed. That's the only mission she had ever failed in her campaigns. Well it wasn't a mission but it was still a failure.

Before she left to investigate the nephilim reincarnations she trained with him, Amber and the rest of the seven swords. Joel was already showing growth in his magic thanks to the book Uriel stole for him at Pakresia.

This book was written by a man who led the invasion 40 years ago. His name was Omiros. He was the only white ranked warrior since the world flood. In this book he talks about a lot of things from astrology, mathematics, philosophy, science, magic and even tectonic plates. Nobody understood what tectonic plates were but he said he divided the conquered land according to the tectonic plates. He explains that they are the only things that truly divides the earth.

What caught Joel's eyes were the laws of gravity. He stated that some people who seem to have no magic usually possess immense magical powers. He further illustrated that an ostrich can not fly because its wings can not lift its heavy body. It is huge and heavy and its wings are small so it can't generate enough thrust to power though a gravitational pull. He further wrote that some people are like an ostrich. They need to enhance their physical strength to be able to awaken their magic. A way to do this is by defying gravity, building leg muscles powerful enough to project your body as high as 1km into the sky without using magic.

This requires a lot of training and Joel was up for the challenge as he was motivated by the suffering slaves at Pakresia and Masia. He has been at it for over a month. First week he did dragon squats and jumped as high as 30 meters by the end of the week. Now he can jump as high as 700 meters. His target is the peak of the mountain, which stands at 1.6 kilometers.

Even though he had not reached 1km leap, he still managed to awaken his magic. His visual prowess awakened when he was at 400m and it already surpasses Lelato's wedge-tailed eagle vision and Uriel's angel vision. Before the awakening he only did complex sword training. He spent every minute of training perfecting his fluidity and combat skills and now with his new found powers he is already a force to be reckoned with.

His speed was already close to Uriel's ultra sonic and he still has a lot of room to improve. His punching power is not yet powerful enough to make the conversation but his speed and vision complemented his weaknesses. Uriel and Lucia had been teaching him advanced spells when he was not training and everything was natural to him. It was hard to believe that the frail kid who had no magic talent was now this toned prodigy with insane abilities and so much room for improvement. He still can't conjure the white flames yet but he knows with hard work and patience, he will someday manage.

Joel had with him another book that they stole at Pakresia.

'Drought Wars.'

A book about the war that broke out 40 years ago. He spent 8 hours training, 8 hours reading drought wars and 8 hours sleeping.

DROUGHT WARS

A Long time ago when the earth was a single gigantic supercontinent, (Pangea) there were four blood kingdoms. West of the continent was the Onisian Empire. A kingdom at the heart of the tropical rainforest, with pyramids towering above the green canopy of the rubber trees, the walking palm and the ungurahui trees.

South of the continent was the kingdom of Botswania, Their lands were almost as vast as Onisia but their population was little above half of Onisia. They were mostly dark and brown skinned. A very few were light skinned.

Far north of Botswania was the kingdom of Adonisia. Their capital, Adonis was built on a hill. Encircled by high walls, and watch towers. The six towers at the far end of the cliff rose high as your eyes can reach. There were no other tower in the whole earth as tall as the six towers. And there was no other richer kingdom. It seemed as if it rained liquid gold and silver in their lands.

To the East of the earth was the Abalonian kingdom. They had vast, rich lands. Full of minerals and natural resources, good pastural lands and ever flowing rivers. However they built their houses using wood and grass thatching. Only their walls, the king's palace, courtyard, library, hall, cistern, citadel and temple were built using bricks.

These four nations were descendants of four sons of Noah, Onis, Swania, Adonis and Abal. They were the sole survivors of the world flood. They spread out and built their own kingdoms. For years there was peace and prosperity. It was a fresh start after the bloody war with the nephilims(half man, half demons).

There was plenty for everyone and abundance for wildlife. The grass was satisfied, the flowers were as wide as the smiles on the bees. The tables of even commoners were as colorful as the wild flowers. It was a time of peace and joy to wash away the stains of the old earth. A time of singing and dancing and nothing danced better than the springboks in the grassland savanna's of Batswania, jumping higher than the abundant trees.

Without warning the rain stopped to shower in their set times. The seasons came and went without any drop of rain, let alone a small cloud. There was just a scorching, dry sun in the clear day sky, evaporating the little moisture left.

The people thought, 'surely the next season it will rain and everything will be back to normal.' But they could have never been more wrong. The next year was even more drier and severe than the last. The once beautiful Eden forests were unrecognizable. It was now like a barren desert. The following year was even worse. The dry animal bones littered the whole earth. By now people lost hope of rain ever coming. The plenty they had, few years prior was long forgotten and the food storages were running dangerously low. By the fourth year even the deepest of Abalonian rivers and marshes at modern day Bearis had dried up.

The one hit the hardest was Onisia. They possessed the toxic blood type O and the relations with other kingdoms were not exactly good, rocky at best. Trading was minimal with Onisia and the three other kingdoms were tight as thieves, often intermarrying with each other.

11 years before the drought, a crown prince of Adonis, Alexis, a 13 year boy was denied the throne by his evil uncle after his dear father died. His uncle ,Prince Loannis ascended the throne on oath that when prince Alexis came of age he will relinquish the crown. When time came to hand back the throne he did not. His greediness couldn't bear losing the throne. He had tasted power and there was no way he was going to let it slip away from his grasp.

He instead made Alexis a diplomat to the detested Onisians. That's how he felt about Alexis. He loathed him. And he felt dealing with deadly toxic Onisians was fitting for him.

In one of his visits to Onis, the capital of the Onisian kingdom, about 4 years before the drought, Alexis was in the chambers allocated to him by the king of Onisia, king Amon. He saw a beautiful young girl practicing sword skills outside his window. He watched the alluring girl gracefully moving around trying to get the better of her master with a wooden sword. Alexis was captivated by the girl. It was pure love at first sight as she was a beautiful sight to see. He was infatuated by her alluring beauty.

As he was looking out his window watching poetry in motion, a servant girl knocked on the door and Alexis let her in. She brought him some refreshments and before she left Alexis asked her who the girl was.

"She is princess Rosa, daughter of king Amon." The servant girl responded with a slight smile.

After the servant girl had left Alexis came back to reality.

'Why am I even in love with this girl when her blood would mercilessly kill me.' He thought to himself and vowed to stop this stupid and dangerous thoughts.

The next day he found himself looking out the window again. It was only after the girl had finished practicing that he remembered the vow he made last night. He was hopelessly in love and there was nothing at this point that was going to help him stop thinking about this girl, not even a vow.

He noticed that the girl's practice session was a bit different from the day before. The girl kept checking out his window.

'Did that servant tell her that I was watching her and that I asked about her?' He thought.

He confirmed his suspicions the following day as he was looking down his third floor window. There was no mistaking it, the girl was making eye contacts with him while she was practicing and for some reason she was smiling at him. He couldn't really believe his eyes. He could see her smiling but he convinced himself that she was not smiling at him.

As it dawned the next day, Alexis, who had lost everything in his life, couldn't believe his stroke of luck when two royal guards brought him an invitation. It was a Friday, and king Amon held a banquet at his palace. Alexis was invited to dine with the king. The royal family was also there and so was Rosa. Alexis had never seen her up close and he was awestruck by her radiating beauty and ravishing smile.

Rosa was a second born daughter of king Amon. She was fair in complexion, with sparkly chartreuse eyes and chestnut long hair flowing like a wave down her back. She was elegant and majestic with her sleeveless, long red dress. She was easy-going, friendly and gentle.

She was the most beautiful girl Alexis had ever laid eyes upon. He was a gentleman so he did not want to stare at her uncomfortably. He took the view all in, in just seconds and forced his gaze away.

The king introduced his royal family to Alexis one after the other until it came to Rosa, who was unusually shy on this day.

"This is my second daughter Rosa." Said king Amon.

"Rosa means rose?" Alexis asked.

"Yes it does." Rosa responded shyly.

"You're beautiful just as a rose." Alexis said softly.

"I love roses." he added.

The servant girl from a few days ago smiled upon hearing what Alexis was saying. She and Rosa understood what he meant when he said he loves roses.

Through out dinner they flirted like there was no one around. The naughty eye contacts and blushes could even be noticed by the king. If it was their wish, they could've preferred to be dining alone.

What seemed like 5 seconds later the dinner was over and the royal princes and princesses left for their quarters and chambers. The king stayed behind and talked with Alexis about trade negotiations and later Alexis went back to his chambers.

He couldn't sleep all night. He was tossing and turning with no drowsiness in his eyes as his heart was burning flames with emotions. He had never been in love before and it took a blood type O to stir up his emotions. All he could think about the whole night was Rosa, her perfect white teeth and beautiful smile, her symmetrical Cupid lips, her flirty chartreuse eyes and her impeccable body.

Before long it was morning and Alexis managed only four hours of sleep. He was summoned by the king and continued the trade negotiations together with Alexis's officials and right hand man, Duncan.

After the meeting was concluded king Amon asked Alexis to stay behind. He was pretty fond of him. He loved him like his own son. He was just 19 so he treated him more like a son than an Adonisian diplomat.

"I see you like my daughter." King Amon said.

"This old cloudy eyes notice everything."

For once Alexis did not know how to respond. Words were lost in his throat. They have just been negotiating trade deals and if it was his choice he could've opted to negotiate a marriage proposal but he was of blood type A. Never had it happened before for an intermarriage involving an Onisian descendant.

After carefully choosing his words he replied in a bitter voice.

"I do my lord the king."

"Are you aware of her blood type." The king asked humorously.

"Yes my lord the king, I'm aware of that." He replied in a low voice.

"Okay then don't make it hard for yourself son." The king responded.

"The more you get close to her, the more it will be hard for you to let go." He added.

"And you will hurt yourself."

"Yes my lord the king, I will stop." Alexis replied.

"Besides I am leaving tomorrow morning."

"I have to go back and tell king Loannis about the trade deal we have signed.

"And I have also heard that she will be bethrothed soon so I want to make myself scarce."

"Yes about that, that's why I am asking you to not complicate things. She is 18 and she is to find a suitor in about a month time." King Amon replied.