Black and White

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Warning

The following novel contains material that may be harmful or traumatic to some readers.

It contains graphic descriptions of murder, violence, and other unpleasant texts.

-Omnis

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-The Year 1270-

-Unknown Place-

-A few hours later-

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Damien is sharpening his blades before the big event. One completely black blade, and a blade that has M.Z.'s initials carved into it in sapphire.

The second blade is a little shorter than the other, but it is just as beautiful as the first. It was all white, but the blade wasn't made of steel or any other precious ore. It was from the famous Waatia tree, which is said to boast the strongest bark and wood to rival the strongest ores in the world.

Damien is already cleaning the black blade. He throws down the cloth and looks at the initials M.Z.

His father's sword, the famous ancestral sword of the House of Zeen. Anyway, he doesn't let it bother him for long and puts the sword away next to the white sword he picks up.

He turns the sword to the other side, and there are the initials M.Z. engraved.

The sword of his mother, a famous and powerful warrior.

That will bring back more memories.

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-The Year 1260-

-Temple of Zeen, City of Waatia, Kingdom of Arlia-

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Ten-year-old Damien has already noticed from the castle that his father is going out into the city without soldiers. His curiosity made him follow his father. He takes a black cloak to cover himself. The cloak is many times larger than himself, so he drags a piece of the cloak across the ground.

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-Tens of minutes later-

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They're already at the Temple of Zeen. There's a huge staircase leading up to the front door. On every fifth step, one of the soldiers stood at each side. They saluted Michael Zeen's arrival, and let him walk up and up.

Since it was also a challenge for Damien not to be seen, he decided to use his knowledge of magic, which he was secretly learning. 

He closed his eyes and concentrated with all his might.

"Invisia," Damien says, and his body starts to become visible. He quickly walks towards the stairs, following his father in silence.

The disadvantage of Invisia is that you can't see the person in question, but the sounds and environment don't play into his hands.

So Damien must walk quietly so as not to arouse suspicion.

He chased his father in his vicinity. They're slowly making their way up. Damien pauses for a moment and looks behind him. 

A huge city that is experiencing prosperity. Black and White flags flying everywhere with Blue-Tyrkys eyes in the middle. Around those eyes are 3 golden stripes at the top, and at the bottom.

A huge tall tower that represents the power of House Zeen. And the majestic white castle, with 6 towers. The biggest one is right in the middle of the castle, which also reaches very high, and in which Michael Zeen has his office. 

Today was a particularly cloudy day. As if it were a day of mourning. 

Young Damien stares too long. He can already hear the opening of the huge iron door directly into the temple. He looks behind him and sees his father waiting for the door to open fully. Damien quickly makes his way up the staircase.

Michael is already coming in. The door slowly starts to close, and Damien just makes it. He slips through the small opening until the door closes immediately.

Damien sees Michael at the end of the corridor, in a small white door, which he opens this time. Damien follows him. Michael leaves the door open.

On his way to the white door, Damien notices the huge paintings on the sides. Paintings representing battles, and below them an urn with a name on it. Many members of the Zeen died in battles on the way to winning the Black Crown. A slight chill went down his spine, but he decided to continue. 

The whole atmosphere was so mysterious and sad. You could feel the presence of all the dead family members with just a step.

Damien sees Michael sitting down across from the huge tomb. A tomb that was right in the middle of a large circular room, with four golden columns around it. Three large white windows, on each side, and a roof that was made of plain glass. 

The soft light shone on the tomb. 

Damien hides behind one of the golden columns and notices four huge paintings depicted on the walls of the room. 

There were 2 people on each of them. One tall, muscular figure with a Black Sword and black hair, all in black armor. And beside him, a figure with long white hair, a white sword, and golden armor. 

It was his mother, Margareth. Michael leans his black sword against the tomb of his dead wife. And he begins to pray.

Damien is going around the room. He walks past the Golden Columns and looks at the battles her mother and father have fought.

When he gets to the other side of the room, he notices the pedestal. The pedestal that held Margareth Zeen's famous white sword. 

Damien's gonna walk over to him. He feels great power and strength from the sword, but he doesn't understand it at the moment. He is captivated by the beauty of the sword. His curiosity makes him want to touch the sword. 

The sword starts to shake a little but makes no sound. It doesn't stop Damien from touching the sword. He sees the golden initials M.Z.

At that moment, his father appears beside him and forcefully grabs his hand, which he was about to catch on his sword. 

Damien's invisibility is lifted, and he looks at his father in surprise. Michael had a stony look on his face. But not a single word came out.

He grabbed Damien by the clothes on his back and took him to Margareth's tomb. Damien made no resistance.

He walks around the tomb and lowers him to his feet, where Michael was sitting a moment ago. 

Michael leaves for a moment, and Damien looks at his mother's tomb. He feels a pang of regret. He didn't know his mother, and he never could. At this moment, he even blames himself for her death. He wants to touch the tomb, but at that moment Michael gently grabs his hand. 

Damien looks at him.

"It's disrespectful, son." Says Michael.

~Lightning~

Damien flinches after he hears the lightning. Michael glances up out of the window. He sighs.

"Well, then you can," Michael says, placing the second chair next to the first. Michael sits down, and Damien touches his mother's tomb.

Even if there's a dead person inside. Damien can smell life on her, a huge life. A life that's enclosed within this stone boundary. Damien stops touching the tomb and sits down. They both begin to pray.

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-The Year 1270-

-Near the City of Waatia-

-An hour later-

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The Imperial Caravan is driving along the road in the forest to the town of Waatia. The caravan is surrounded by soldiers on horseback guarding the Emperor's Youngest Son. Shah Herlin.

Inside the caravan also sits his Head Protector, Tirius Gahan. He hands him a bottle of water. But Shah respectfully indicates he's not interested.

"I don't want to, but thank you." Says Shah.

Tirius sets the bottle down beside him and looks at Shah.

"I've wanted to ask you that for a long time." Tirius catches Shah's attention.

"But I only remembered it when I was driving through my native land." Says Tirius.

"You knew the Zeen family personally?" Tirius asks curiously.

Shah just shakes his head in agreement.

"Yes."

"Especially the heirs. Damien Zeen." Shah replies.

Another question pops into the mind of the curious Tirius.

"What was he like? Because I was relatively young, I only saw him once, and even then I thought he would be a great leader." Tirius said.

Shah smiles.

"First of all, I considered him a friend."

"He was relatively mysterious and always stone-faced. It was as if nothing could shake him."

"He was always well dressed, polite, but not very social."

"My two years older sister adored him. That's just my guess, but I think she was in love with him."

"She endured the pain just like I did when my miserable father decided to murder them." Shah glances at Tirius.

"Above all, he was terribly incredulous. He believed in practically nothing. Gods, mythical dragons. He didn't even believe in the Black Crown." Shah surprises Tirius.

"But once, when I told him about the Black Crown, I saw in his eyes that he wanted to get this Crown very badly."

"That was practically by the time he was ten years old." 

"He no longer either contradicted or attacked that it was a myth."

"He wanted to believe that the glorious Crown really existed."

"I don't know what broke him enough to want to possess this Crown." Says Shah.

"And how did they kill his father?" Tirius asks.

"Since Michael Zeen was a very excellent fighter, practically one of the best, my father unfortunately sent someone who wanted to take Michael's life."

"Michael Zeen's arch rival, Mergor Herlin."

"Your... uncle?" Tirius asks in surprise.

"Yes. One of the finest swordsmen and magicians of the age."

"I don't know what drove my uncle to kill Michael."

"But it was probably something very personal."

After Shah finishes speaking, the caravan stops. Tirius and Shah look at each other. Tirius opens the door of the caravan and looks at the front entourage.

"Why did we stop?" Tirius asks the soldiers. 

But no one will answer him. Tirius looks at Shah.

"Stay here. I'm going out." Tirius says and jumps out of the caravan, which he closes as well, drawing one of his two swords. The soldiers and their horses have disappeared without a trace. They stick close to the entrance of the caravan, just in case. 

~Arrow~

An arrow from the unknown shoots at Tirius. But he calmly destroys him with his sword. 

~Arrow~ ~Arrow~

Two more arrows. He deflects one with his sword, and catches the other with his free hand, which then breaks the arrow into two pieces.

Since there were trees everywhere, it was hard to tell where the arrows were shot from. He points in front of him with his palm.

"Firmento Do-"

~Attack~

Tirius doesn't have time to say a powerful spell. One of the mercenaries jumps out of the tree and hits him in the head with his foot. This stuns Tirius a bit, but after the mercenary pulls out his dagger to plunge it into Tirius, he manages to wake up and swings his sword, decapitating the mercenary. The head bounces against the caravan, and falls to the ground.

~Arrow~

Another arrow is aimed at Tirius, who jumps up on the caravan. The whole caravan shakes and Shah feels it. 

~Arrow~ ~Arrow~ ~Arrow~

Once he's more in range, arrows are coming from all directions to hit him. But he deflects them all with his sword. 

"Cowards." Tirius says with a smile.

Mercenaries begin to emerge from the trees, followed by their main boss, Harlin. He smiles at Tirius, who wipes the blood from his sword.

"It takes courage to dare to attack the Imperial Heir Caravan."

"Let me warn you that I am no ordinary soldier."

"And that's why I'm going to give you a chance to surrender, and get out while you can."

The mercenaries start laughing.

"Surrender?" Harlin asks ironically and laughs.

Then his face turns serious, and he gives the order to attack.

Around thirty mercenaries rush at Tirius. He spills like blood first, cutting their heads off mid-flight while two of them jump on him. The bodies hit the caravan and then fall down. Blood starts running down the windows, which Shah notices.

Tirius then leaps at the mercenary in mid-air. He grabs his head, which he squeezes hard until his eyes fly out. He squeezes harder, and his whole head flies apart. He throws the rest of his body at the four mercenaries who are about to fire crossbows at him.

Tirius hits the ground and is immediately attacked by two mercenaries. He blocks both attacks with one sword parry. He then kicks one mercenary with all his strength until half of his body is blown apart. He grabs the other's arm, rips it off, and immediately lowers it, stabbing him in the stomach. Another mercenary rushes at him from behind, Tirius immediately grabs his sword even though there is still a mercenary stabbed in it and slashes the other mercenary. The mercenary turns into two bloody parts with organs, blood and flesh falling out.

Tirius is then attacked from behind by a much larger sword. It's enough to block it, but it knocks him into a tree.

There are six more mercenaries targeting the disadvantaged Tirius. He immediately gets up and bounces off the ground. 

"Firmento Dorlun." Tirius says in the air, and their bodies immediately turn into six balls of fire. They immediately start screaming in pain, Tirius then hits the ground and aims for the last 14 mercenaries along with Harlin.

He swings his sword, which gets rid of the blood on the sword, and snaps his fingers.

~boom~ ~boom~ ~boom~ ~boom~ ~boom~ ~boom~

All six mercenaries exploded in the fire. Their bodies fell all over the area. Harlin orders some mercenaries to pull the heirs out of the caravan. 

They immediately obey and head for the caravan. Tirius immediately wants to get to the caravan, but is blocked by Harlin.

"But where to?" Harlin says with a smile.

"You wouldn't want to leave this fun, worm, would you?" Harlin says, laughing.

It's a difficult time for Tirius. But a man of his stature should be able to handle this easily.

To be continued...