The Holy War

Russel saw the sword coming towards him at high speed, but to him it seemed almost trivially slow. He dodged to the right of the wooden blade before swinging back with his own, landing a solid hit on the right side of Oliver's ribs. Oliver was knocked back, but quickly recovered and charged at Russell at lightning speed. They clashed blades and Russel let it seem like Oliver was starting to slowly overpower him. Russel quickly sprouted his wings and quickly flew over Oliver, swooping down for a quick strike. Oliver parried and hit Russel straight on the root of his wing, the impact causing Russel to wince. Oliver started an onslaught against him, swinging rapidly and landing a few hits across his chest and arms, causing him to drop his wooden sword. Russel fell to the ground and activated his claws, rushing forward and slashing, Oliver dodging each and every swipe. With a smile Russel spun and redeployed his wings, hitting Oliver square in the chest and sending him flying. Russel quickly grabbed his sword and jumped on to Oliver's chest, pointing the blade straight at his heart.

"That's the death blow!" Omar announced from the sidelines. "In the last two months that makes one hundred and twenty six wins for Russel, fity seven for Oliver.

Russel fell back to the ground, panting heavily from the fight. He reached for his water skin and took a few large droughts before he started laughing lightly. Over the past two months since Oliver had woken up he had almost mastered control of his fallen angel form as it was now. No longer requiring a strong emotional charge to allow him to use it. He had even learned to be able to keep up the extremely taxing body of flames for up to five minutes at a time and be able to fight afterwards. On the other hand, Oliver's swordsmanship had improved drastically along with his battle sense and reflexes, he had adapted well to the enhancements of his body and had made it so that his agility had become his strong point, though his endurance still needed work as was apparent after the duel from moments ago.

"Damn it… I was up twenty-seven to none at one point…" Oliver sighed.

Russel sighed. It was true. At first he was unable to keep up with his almost instant improvement, and took a week or two dueling three or four times a time for him to finally win one. And from their it had been almost a slaughter on paper. Though each fight was still extremely difficult to win, leaving Russel to rely on tricks and his wings to win.

"It's your fault for not being able to see through his tricks Oliver." Omar chided. "You need to know how to trick your oponent and use what you have both on you and around you to your advantage."

Russel smiled at Omar acknowledging his not exactly valiant skill set and he lifted the ring to the sky and bounced the light of its metal surface into Oliver's eyes. Oliver cried out in shock and covered his eyes, backing away from where he had stood, tripping over a root and falling to the ground. Russel started to laugh at Oliver's reaction and misfortune.

"Why you…" Oliver growled jumping towards him.

Russel quickly sprouted his wings and flew up, just out of Oliver's reach while jumping. Oliver kept trying regardless but was never able to grab him. Omar sighed at the sight and quickly launched a spell, knocking the unexpecting Russel to the ground.

"You two just can't help acting like children…" He sighed.

"Sorry Omar…" Oliver apologized.

"We are still teenagers." Russel argued.

"Well regardless, I think you are now ready to retrieve the first demon stone." Omar told them.

"Seriously?" Russel asked, sitting up out of the dirt.

"I'm surprised myself… But you two are killing enough by now to do so. Plus I feel some experience in Oblivion will force you to mature a bit. And it isn't like opening the portal is an easy task." Omar explained. "But before you go, I think it is important you understand how Oblivion ended up like it is… It was always a terrible place, but now it is about the worst place you could possibly imagine, thanks to the holy war. But we should discuss this in a place more comfortable. It'll be getting dark soon regardless."

Omar started to walk towards the house with the boys in tow. They walked for about fifteen minutes back to the house and sat in the small common area and sat on the cushioned seats across from eachother. Omar took his time to make himself comfortable before finally speaking.

"What do you currently know of the holy war?" He asked.

"Pretty much nothing except Arthur apparently killed Satan at the end of it." Russel informed him.

"I know about as much as he does, except that I never knew who killed Satan." Oliver added.

"Well then we may as well start from scratch. To a time five hundred years ago, back when the years were counted on the Ocasia calenda, while now we haven't bothered to count the years, even though the world has been at relative peace for fifty odd years now." Omar recounted. "But regardless, it was year seven hundred and sixty two on the Ocasian calendar. Tensions had been rising between the angels and the demons since before he Ocasian empire was founded, but the war started because of one small event. The eighteenth emperor of Ocasia, a human named Orion Gorst, the seventh from the Gorst line was about to take the throne at only fourteen after the premature death of his father. However, Orion had lost his beloved, a girl whom was a commoner but shared a romance with him, to one of the Order of the Dove sanctioned witch burnings, therefore when he took the throne he denounced them as traitors to the empire. Needless to say, the angels who wished to force mundane races into servitude were not happy. So they planned to assasinate the emperor. The day that they were to carry out this plot, they failed. They failed because of your father Russel. The great Mende Diabolous, the brother that Satan had created himself when he was cast down from heaven."

"My father saved the emperor? Wait a minute… How old even was he?" Russel asked.

"To answer that when he died he was over two thousand years old. Fallen angels and demons cannot die of natural causes like age or disease, they can only die by being killed by another being." Omar answer. "Back to the story, after the emperor was saved he retreated into hiding, but Mende stayed and continued to fight the angels that were to assassinate him. Eventually one of the most powerful angels though we never knew which, unleashed a fierce attack that ended up leveling the capital city of Vale, which is now simply the capital of Walton. Almost everything and everyone around the city was killed, though Mende survived, with an injury to his leg that would never heal. But with everyone, including the young emperor dead, the place turned into the first battle of the holy war once the dust settled and reinforcements for both sides appeared. The battle of Vale was the first battle of the war, and finished with the second most casualties. After the battle was over, and those in Ocasia learned of the emperor who was too young to have any offspring and was the sole heir had died, brining the Gorst line to a close, it was left to the governors of the provinces to decide who would be the next emperor. But they did something foolish, deciding to go into a civil war rather than a civil discussion, and ended up splitting the empire up by provinces into the countries you see today. As the civil war grew, so did the holy war. And while the civil war came to an end after merely ten months, the holy war continued across all three plains of existence. Oblivion, the mortal realm, and the divine realm, and though the mortals never say the true extent of the holy war, they knew it raged on. The war between good and evil they called it, and thanks to the Order of the Doves influence, we were considered to be on the side of evil."

"How did the war end?" Russel asked.

"In the five hundredth year of the war the angels led an all out offensive against Oblivion. With their entire force they raided the underworld in what became known as the Battle of the Split. As they name implies they split Oblivion into seven plains, the name of each corresponding with one of the orders cardinal sins. Greed, Lust, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, Pride and Envy. They accomplished this by killing Satan and spreading his body across all seven plains, but they didn't account for two things, what his body would become and what would happen to his soul. While what became of his soul is unknown, his body became what is known as the demon stones, and it is said when collected allow their owner to breach the gates of Heaven, allowing them to access the country of angels. The stones are said to also each hold a great power that is bestowed upon any fallen angel that collects them, needless to say these powers would be useful to your inneviatable fight against the angels, and likely the divine one himself." Omar finished.

"Fighting the divine one… The one who created everything…" Russel muttered, not confident it was a fight he could win.

"The one who created everything!?" Omar laughed. "Not a chance. All three worlds existed long before he came into being. And all of the mundane races came from breeding between angels and demons. Is that what the Order says? That he created everything?"

"Yes it is. Everyone is taught that from a young age. You grow up in an environment that you never have any reason to not beleive it either." Oliver confirmed.

"Wow… I have never left this city since the holy war, and never left Oblivion before that so I would not know." Omar told them. "Now then, I'll make us a late dinner and then get you two into bed. Tomorrow we start the process of opening the portal to Oblivion, or more specifically the plain of Greed, since that is the only portal that can be opened in Sylizen, and luckily its entrance is around here."

Omar made them a quick dinner, simply cooking meat over a fireplace within the house. After the very plain meal, Oliver and Russel went downstairs and went to bed. While Oliver went to bed quickly, Russel stared at the ceiling contemplating everything he had just learned from the old man.

'A time where the year was recorded… Nothing like that nowadays, the only thing you keep track of is holidays and your birthday along with those close to you…' Russel thought with a sigh.

As he replayed the information continuously in his mind he felt himself drifting to sleep, and before he knew it he once again found himself in the barren landscape surrounded by lava.

"It would seem that old man forgot to tell you about after the war… What happened to your mother and I." The man of flames said, suddenly appearing.

"So you're my father then? I suppose it is safe to assume that the woman made of flame that appears in my mind is my mother then?" Russel asked.

"You don't get suprised easily do you?" The man said with a sigh. "Yes, I guessthat would be correct. Though I have not seen or spoken to her since we died. I spent most of that time observing your life through you eyes, and trying to figure out why my soul was transferred into your body upon death, seemingly it happened to your mother too…"

"If we are in my mind then what is this place?" Russel asked. "Not exactly how you would expect your own conscience to work…"

"I do not know the answer to that and it is quite unimportant. What I will show you is of importance however. You need to see what happened to us. The last of our race on that night that your mother and I were both killed."