12 The messenger of God (2)
"Now, let's get down to business." said the man with a benevolent smile
The intruder walked out of the shadows and stood in front of Emperor Zandrek, was a relatively tall man, he had broad shoulders, and through the white cloak he had on you could see the streamlined muscles of his body.
The intruder had shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair; his face was covered by a pure white mask that had golden designs on it.
Although he had an appearance similar to a Terran, Zandrek had noticed that the man didn't have the signature backward-curved horns, nor did he have the pointy ears of a Terran.
While the absence of those two features was certainly peculiar, his most outstanding feature, was the fact that he had 6 white angelic wings that were on his back.
At the moment, they weren't pulled close to the man's back, but Zandrek knew that if he extended them out, the 3 pairs of wings would have most likely reached a wingspan of 2 meters.
"W-who are you?" stuttered Zandrek
"I, am Abraxos, the Archangel of Warfare."
"I am a messenger of the God of Creation, His magnificence, Tristan." declared the intruder
Emperor Zandrek could only stand there in awe and disbelief.
A special trait of the Terrans was how they were the first to form religions, while there were some animalist and shamanist religions, most of them worshipped Sofia, the Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom, plus they worshipped what they thought were deities under the Goddess, but were just made up over the years, however, what all of these different sects of religion had in common, was how all of them knew of the existence of Tristan, but none of them knew his name.
All the Terrans knew, was there is a King of Gods out there who created all of them, as well as their patron Goddess, but none of them knew his true name.
The only ones who knew his true name were the very first generation of Terrans, however, due to them not developing letters and writing in time, his name was either botched over the years of mouth-to-ear legends, or his name was completely forgotten.
So, you can imagine how big of a deal it is for not only an Archangel to show up in front of Emperor Zandrek, but for said archangel to speak of the true name of the God of Creation.
When Zandrek heard of the true name of the great king of gods, he was in awe, while the name Tristan was pretty normal and common on earth, here in Saxonia not only did the humans use different types of names, but the Terrans' names were even more different, so to them Tristan was a magical and magnificent name.
Once the gravity of the situation finally registered in his brain, Emperor Zandrek for the first time, bowed to another person. "Please forgive me, I-I-I had no idea!"
"Haha, it's quite alright, really, I take no offense, I realize you are in a dire situation right now and have to be very careful, please, stand."
As Zandrek was getting up, you could see the visible fear from him as he was shaking in fright.
Seeing the proud emperor shivering before him was quite comical to Tristan, who of course was under the disguise of an archangel.
For a quick moment, a curious thought surfaced wondering what his reaction would be if he knew that he was talking to the God of Creation himself, but it quickly vanished as Zandrek had finally gotten a grip on himself.
"Ah, finally."
"Sorry for showing you such a display sir archangel," said Zandrek meekly
"it's alright, now let's get down to why I was sent here."
Hearing this, Zandrek's ears perked up, he too wanted to know what message the highest of all beings had for him.
"Lord Tristan sent me here to deliver unto you a divine weapon along with a blessing."
Emperor Zandrek was taken aback by this; he was in no way shape or form expecting a gift from the king of gods.
"At first he was going to grant you a divine staff to help with your magic, but it seems that you are a close combat mage, so, he created a divine battle axe, named "Blood Axe"."
The archangel then proceeded to pull out a giant battle axe.
The Battle axe was 1.5 meters long, it was made of iron with a handle wrapped in leather.
on the shaft of the axe there were square grooves running up along it to help with catching incoming enemy weapons.
on the backside of the axe was a three-prong defense design, using these three spikes you could catch an approaching enemy from behind without having to maneuver too much.
The blade itself was almost half the size of the handle and shaft, the blade curved upwards a small bit but for the most part, the blade was pointed down.
It had an impossibly sharp edge that could cut all manner of bronze weaponry or armor.
On the actual blade itself, there were crimson red designs decorated all across the face of both sides of the blade, these designs seemed to glow for one moment then dim back down.
(Picture of Blood Axe --->)
Emperor Zandrek ogled at the beautiful battle axe for a few more moments before a cough broke him out of his stupor.
"Ahem, as I was saying, this fine piece of warfare got its name due to its unique ability called "Drain". The ability works exactly as the name implies, the more blood it takes in or drains from your foes, the sharper and more durable the axe gets, alongside the more blood it drains the stronger you get physically." explained Abraxos aka Tristan
"Due to your plight with the barbarian tribes that are attacking your empire right now, Tristan decided to be merciful and created this weapon for you and all future generations of your household to wield."
"Now don't get arrogant thinking you are the only one receiving such a gift, there are two more rulers such as yourself that I will visit, but don't worry, I doubt you nor the next few generations of emperors will meet these nations, it is a vast continent after all," said Abraxos with a wink that Zandrek couldn't see
"Sir Abraxos, earlier you said only those with my blood can wield this weapon, does that mean a usurper with my blood can wield this weapon down the line?"
"Hmm, good question, while only those who are descended from you can wield this weapon, just because they have your blood flowing through their veins, doesn't mean they will be worthy to wield it."
The second requirement to wield this fine axe is to be either a 6th-tier aura knight or a 6th-tier sorcerer, on top of the last requirement, the wielder needs to possess an unbreakable will to help make this empire a better place for its people."
"Whether that is militarily, economically, or just wanting to see everyone happy, those are the two requirements to wield the "Blood Axe"."
Throughout the whole explanation, Zandrek was nodding his head unconsciously as he felt this was an understandable requirement.
"This axe isn't the only thing you will receive, as mentioned earlier, you will gain a blessing, and it just so happens to be mine, the Archangel of Warfare's blessing." declared Abraxos stoically
"Huh, archangels can give blessings, I thought that was something only a god can do?"
"Typically, you would be right, however, when authorized, an archangel can give a blessing that has something to do with their domain, usually this permission comes from either the lord Tristan or another god with the same domain," explained Abraxos
"Hmm, I see." nodded Zandrek dumbly as he had no idea what heavenly policies were like
"Now that the explanation is over, it's time to give you, my blessing."
And with that being said, a blinding light soon fell onto Emperor Zandrek, for a whole hour Zandrek had been bathed in the divine light.
once the light receded, he soon felt some changes in his body, for starters he felt an innate connection with the ice element he had never felt before.
Although he had reached the 9th tier with ice magic, it was more so a relationship of him controlling the elemental mana and bending it to his will, but now, he felt like he could connect and synchronize with the mana all around him.
The next change he felt was his body had become as sturdy and strong as it possibly could, he was now bordering a constitution that wasn't human, he felt revitalized and had energy filled to the brim.
The next change wasn't something in his body, but rather a feeling he now felt all around him.
Up until now, the only two forms of energy that were known to the world were mana and aura.
But now he felt a third energy that was soothing and warm.
This was spirit energy, the most mysterious energy that laid dormant in all creatures, from the day of their birth all the way to their death.
Once the changes were complete, Emperor Zandrek fell to his knees and started to thank Abraxos and sang praises to Tristan.
"Now that you're finished, I am going to explain to you what that third foreign energy you felt was, now I'm only going to say this once, so I suggest you write this down for future generations."
Zandrek scrambled to grab a few stone tablets to record the teachings on.
That's right, stone tablets, right now the world is still in the bronze age and will most likely continue that way for quite some time, so these stone tablets will serve as guides for future emperors.
"Firstly, you need to learn what spirit energy is. Spirit energy is in short, the life force of every living creature on this planet."
"When a creature is born, they have a certain amount of spirit energy within them, for example, a dire wolf may only have enough spirit energy to live up to 50 years, while the average Terran has enough spirit energy to live up to 1,000 years."
"Where these teachings come into play, is I will teach you a way to accumulate more spirit energy as to live longer, however, be warned, those who do not have the permission of the God of Creation, will not be able to truly become immortal."
"The reason why you are feeling spirit energy for the first time even though it is in everyone is due to the seal being unlocked."
"T-the seal?" asked Zandrek with a befuddled face
"Yes, the seal, you see, when Lord Tristan made this world, although he let mana and aura have free reign, he sealed spirit energy to where no being could accumulate more of it, he wanted the natural order of the world to progress to a certain point before he introduced this energy that could possibly extend one's life for thousands of years."
So how do you gain more spirit energy?" asked Zandrek as he was carving into the tablets with mana
"don't worry I'm getting there, now the final thing before I teach you, there is a limit to how long you can extend your lifespan without the permission of Lord Tristan."
"That most you can extend your life is different between species when it comes to magic beasts, theoretically they can live forever as long as they become strong enough, every time a beast gets stronger their lifespan will increase."
"Then what about us Terrans?" inquired Tristan
"Terrans have a maximum of 4,000 years that they can add onto their lives."
"Now, it's time to explain how to increase spiritual energy."
Once Abraxos said that a visible glint could be seen in Zandrek's eyes.
"Firstly, there are 4 tiers for right now, each tier increases the lifespan of Terrans by 1,000 years."
"To reach the first tier, one must be either an 8th tier aura user or an 8th tier mage."
"Once someone reaches that requirement, they will then have to start spiritual meditation."
"Depending on the person doing it, the length between tiers is different, one person may take 300 years, while the other will take 800 years."
"Will this meditation disrupt the process of rising in the aura or magic tiers?" asked Zandrek
"Ah, good question, the answer is no, as you do your normal aura/mana meditation, you will also accumulate spirit energy."
"And before you ask, don't worry about growing too old before the next advancement, there are also 4 benchmarks for each tier, for each benchmark you gain 250 years of lifespan," explained Abraxos
After that explanation, Abraxos went on to teach Emperor Zandrek how to accumulate spirit energy alongside his aura.
while this was going on, elsewhere in the continent, two other conversations similar to this were being had.
--------------------------------------------------
Authors Note:
Thank you to everyone who has commented and added this story to their collections, i hope you enjoy the rest of the novel!
This week there might only be 3 or 4 chapters, I'll be going out of town on Thursday, and I can't bring my PC with me. Once I come back home, I will start writing more chapters again.
And remember, all feedback is welcome, don't be shy, make comments or paragraphs or the chapter as a whole, it makes me more motivated when I hear feedback from the readers!
