(Ch 43)Royal Knights

At Eshir's prompt both Ruby and Amethyst grumbled in approval though as infants it could've just been because they were hungry. Faith moved around a little more in his outfit, posing in front of the mirror as the coattails of his jacket swished back and forth. The cufflinks matched his hair and Trust the earring he always wore perfectly.

His face and hair were perfect as normal of a dragon and his overall visage, with his pointed ears, red eyes, white hair and smile that glowed in an innocent yet ominous allure fitting of the demonic prince he was.

Well, at least what others assumed he was.

'Am I a narcissist for thinking I'm pretty cute?' Faith asked kinda worried as he checked himself out.

'Your a dragon so it's not much to be proud of' Luna replied back, snorting a little.

'Screw you, I'm the king of cuteness and I'm super proud of it. All will bow before my adorableness one day' Faith replied, cackling while plotting his world domination like any good demon should, just in a rather… strange way.

Faith stopped for a minute to look down at the sword he'd left for last, resting in the metal casing. He wasn't sure why but it felt as if the sword was… resonating with him. Leaning down he grasped onto the hilt, which immediately extended three spikes into his hand causing Faith to reel back a in pain.

Surprising Eshir didn't move forward to help him, though she did bite her lip in frustration that this was needed for the weapon to function properly.

'Ow shit.. that hurt… wait what the hell?' Faith thought looking down at the three spikes imbedded in his hand as they slowly absorbed, or rather drank his blood.

The sword slowly Writhed as it drank from its master blood and assimilated part of Faith's magical essence into itself, growing a changing while humming in joy. The crossguard bent, one side bending down to guard the handle while the other bent up. The runes along the blade started to glow in an ever darker hue gaining a red outline along with their black substance while the blade itself become adorned in an ominous black outline while highlighting the glowing white blade even further.

The last change was the blade slowly manifesting a chain from the small hole in the sharp-edged pommel that attached to the inside of the black sheath with white metallic outlines. The entire sword itself shortened quite a bit to match the size of its master before stopping, summoning the sheath itself with the chain and settling itself on Faith's belt.

"This is strange" Faith spoke aloud, his curiosity getting the best of him.

The blade itself was strangely now connected to his mana flow and with every beat of his dragon heart, it grew sharper and stronger like a hammer beating out metals impurities. Strange runes Faith couldn't understand that were engraved underneath the hilt seemed to have connected the weapon and its master together, Faith becoming the power source the enchantments, runes and blade fed off of instead of a mana crystal.

He wasn't sure about what the enchantments actually did nor the majority of the runes but given that this weapon was directly connected to his heart Faith could estimate it was probably far more capable than anything else he'd ever gotten.

The sword seemed to have quite literally become a part of him as it breathed life for the first time with his touch and blood.

"Neat" Faith said, looking down at his sheathed blade with its rather ominous hilt sticking out.

'Hey, Faith are you done' Luna asked, wondering why the soon to be six-year-old was staring at his sword, seemingly enraptured by it.

'Huh… oh right' Faith replied remembering they had somewhere to be.

Eshir had grabbed a makeshift baby carrier between the time that her son had been inspecting his present's, strapping in both ruby and amethyst while she waited for him to finish. Luna hoped into Faith's new vest pocket While he followed his mother, holding hands at her insistence.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at what could be considered the travelling hub of the castle, Faith recognising the spatial runes engraved into the gate like portals. Though there were more then a few precautions this place was underground in one of the deepest areas available to Demons so that any intruders coming through the gates could be buried at a moments notice.

The place was also heavily guarded, all knights of the royal family wearing their trademark black metallic armour with purple streaks and runes with white plumes adorning the top of their helmets.

Unlike the normal spatial gates located throughout the demon kingdom in their various cities that were used by the public and far less guarded these spatial gates only connected to high ranking areas.

"They all look so cool" Faith noted seeing the fabled royals guards that generally protected the perimeter of the castle rather than the inside.

"Do you think so sweetie?" Eshir asked while all of the royals guards bowed in practised unison.

Faith nodded, finding all of their armour incredibly intriguing and their design being rather demonic awesome. What brought on even more of his curiosity was that mana seemed to be streaming from the castle itself into each of their suits of full plate armour.

'it's kinda like my heart' Faith thought, finding another interesting bit of information about the castle.

Like a dragon heart, it seemed to innately draw and absorb mana in the atmosphere then redistribute it. It was isolated enough so that Faith could notice but not enough so that he couldn't draw in mana of his own.

'I wonder if it can lock off magic regeneration by completely isolating the mana in its area' Faith wondered. He was sure it wasn't doing so currently since his Heart could draw in mana just fine if needed but if such a thing was possible it would be any mages nightmare, especially with these royals knights armour which could absorb the mana taken in by the castle.

"Your majesty, it's an honour to greet you as always. From your breathtaking visage, I assume you'll be using the newly installed spatial gate." Said the guard with a deep, old voice and the longest plumage out of all of them, which Faith assumed was a captain of some sort.

"Yes, as troubling as it is they've decided to move the date and there's not much we could do about it. Have the other representatives already gone through?" Eshir asked gazing at the bowed man.

"Yes your majesty, they should all be waiting for your arrival as we speak. Four of the twelve captains have been sent ahead as an escort for yourself, the prince and the princesses as well." The old voice added

Eshir expression remained almost the same but Faith being her son and knowing her better than anyone else he could notice the slight surprise in your expression.

'Those old fogeys know I'll be fine and none of them would leave the castle even when my father begged them. Why the hell would start being proactive now?' Eshir thought, surprised that the captains of the royal knights know for their almost hermit-like protection of the Exodus castle rather then its ruling family had decided to move for once.

"Why would the Order of Royal knights move to escort us?" Eshir asked bluntly.

The order itself wasn't like any other of the exodus castle since it didn't exactly adhere to the ruling family but rather to the long-dead sovereign, Exodus himself. It was a pain in Eshir's backside to have such remarkably trained soldiers yet no way to use them unless the castle was under legitimate siege.

Yet it was also very nice to know that if that did occur the royals knights, with their strange and mysterious armoury and weapons would be able to handle it. While the capital itself had been sieged multiple times by various races over the five thousand years since Exodus lived not once had the castle of Exodus been invaded by a single unwanted trespasser.

What's more in the entirety of its time since its foundation it was said that never once had all legions of the Order fought together, only sending a single captain or two to deal with threats. Faith had read about them in the royal library and looking at their armour that mimicked a dragons heart to a certain extent he could understand why.

"Well, your majesty if I may be so blunt, not once since our founder have we had an heir with such potential to match that or perhaps even surpass Exodus himself. We may not be at your beck and call your majesty but I assure you we still have the demon races and the royal families best interests as our creed of motivation and action" the old knight replied, stealing a glance at Faith before through his helmet.

'He really does have an almost scary lack of presence' The old knight noted, finding it hard to even pinpoint Faith's magical aura.

"Please believe this old man when I tell you that our order truly does simply wish for your safety and with peace around the corner our role in advancing and safeguarding demonkind has never been more needed" The old knight added trying to assure his queen who still had doubts about the true motive.