Under The Dark Sky

"He is dead. King Argos. He was found dead in his chambers this morning".

As Arthur heard Alexander's reply, he was taken aback. Dead? How could someone as strong as King Argos be dead? He couldn't wrap his head around the fact that someone like King Argos who was practically immortal had fallen.

"What do you mean by dead?! How can he be dead?" Arthur tried to question Alexander. However, Alexander didn't look like he had heard him. Much like everyone else around, Alexander was also losing his mind.

The death of King Argos was something unprecedented. The three Kingdoms of Yakaria, Benad and Xezar had a very delicate power balance among them. While the three kings were all on friendly terms, there was another side to this. You see, every time the ruler of a Kingdom changes there will always be a small group of people who would want to oppose the change. When the Lumens fell at the hand of the three Champions, there was a minuscule percentage of the population who weren't on board with this change. Specifically, the people who held some amount of power during the Lumen's reign. This small group slowly grew in size over the course of the last thousand years leading to the formation of an underground religion named "Children of the Lumen". However, no matter how much the religion grew in size, there was no way for them to possibly go up against someone as powerful as a King. This entire equation changed with the death of King Argos. For the first time in a thousand years, Xezar was vulnerable.

The people of Xezar understood this equation of power well enough to realize that if something wasn't done soon enough, the entire Kingdom could fall.

Not getting the answers he wanted, Arthur decided to run towards the Palace in hopes of finding someone who could tell him what had happened.

While he ran towards the palace at full speed, something strange happened. The cloudless blue sky turned black in an instant. But this was different than how the sky generally looked at night. This time around, the sky had no stars in it. It was pitch black. Arthur looked around trying to make head or tail of what exactly was happening. Strangely though, he couldn't see anyone. The streets that were filled with people were empty. It was as if he was the only person left in this world. There was silence. Complete silence. As he stood on the empty street under the pitch-black sky, Arthur finally heard something.. or.. someone.

"I have been patiently waiting for your arrival, young Arthur." a deep voice said.

Arthur tried to find where exactly the voice was coming from. But to his dismay, it seemed that the voice was coming from everywhere. All around him.

"Who is speaking? Why can't I see you?" Arthur tried to keep himself as calm as possible even though he was slowly starting to get scared of this entire situation.

"Listen to me very carefully Arthur. What I am about to tell is of utmost importance. It is I, King Argos talking to you right now" the voice said.

"King Argos? Is this some kind of a joke? King Argos is dead. Who are you? Reveal yourself" Arthur retorted back.

"I understand your confusion, young one. Unfortunately, I can show you no proof of my identity. However, please believe in me when I say that I am King Argos speaking. As you quite rightly pointed out, my physical existence is indeed over. The body I resided in for so long can no longer hold my soul. That being said, my astral form still remains. Not for long. But for the moment it does. I might disappear completely in the coming few moments. But before I do, I have something of extreme importance I need to pass onto you."

Arthur heard whatever the voice had to say. Quietly. Calmly. Seeing that Arthur had started to somewhat believe in him, Argos kept talking.

"This morning my physical body was killed. I am not certain by whom or how. But I am certain that I was indeed assassinated. What you need to know Arthur is that I am not exactly the person who took down a Lumen a thousand years back. Things have changed since then. While we three Kings did seal the Lumens in our bodies, we didn't account for the fact that unlike the Lumens our bodies were indeed mortal. While we would have survived for tens of thousands of years, the life force within us would have slowly diminished. Eventually, one day, we would have died. However, the Lumens sealed within us were immortals. They would never have died. As we grew older and weaker, the seal that kept them imprisoned in our bodies grew weaker as well, leaking energy out of them.

While the three of us were aware of this, we didn't want to cause any kind of panic within the kingdoms. Hence, we decided to keep it to ourselves. But now the unthinkable has happened. I never would have imagined that I would be assassinated. It shames me to admit that I am not even aware of who did it.

Now that I will be gone forever, my Kingdom falls in great peril. Arthur, do you have the sword I asked you to forge for me?"

Arthur couldn't digest the enormous amount of information that he had just received. He could barely stand on his feet. Even if the king was dead, he couldn't understand why the king would tell him, a 21-year-old scrawny blacksmith, all of this.

"Y-yes I do have the sword you asked for" Arthur replied.

"Good. And did you forge it using Lumos Stone as I had asked for?" The King asked.

"Yes. But, Lumos Stone being as light as it is, I had to reinforce it with some Glatenite." Arthur said.

"Very well. I sense I do not have much time left Arthur. So forgive me for rushing you like this. But there is something I want you to do for me."