Manifest War: The Weapons Within

The next morning came at Castle de Belouis as Nadine arrived at Azhane’s sleeping quarters. She alerted the Queen that one of the Six had returned with those responsible for attacking Carmen. Azhane’s eyes lit up with dangerous glee when she heard the news.

“Bring them to the throne room at once!” She told Nadine while forcefully standing from her desk.

“As you wish, My Lady.”

Azhane entered the throne room and sat down, crossing her legs and folding her arms tightly. Her focus was at one hundred percent for this encounter and she couldn't wait to see who would be presented to her. The doors opened and leading the group was Graymoor of Two, followed closely by a few guards and two people cuffed and chained.

Don and Kat had seen better days, their once expensive looking clothing, now tattered and dirtied. The mercenaries' faces were scuffed and bruised while they both walked with a heavy limp, still feeling the beatdown they incurred the previous night.

“Your Majesty, I've brought the two culprits alive, as you commanded!” Graymoor stated with his deep, seasoned voice.

He got down on a single knee and bowed his head to her, feeling proud of what he had accomplished.

“Well done Graymoor. Your effort pleases me greatly.” Azhane responded with a dark smile.

Graymoor nodded and after getting to his feet, he stepped aside to let Azhane see the two prisoners. She noticed their attire, causing her to coldly smirk.

“Ah, did I interrupt a special evening for you two? Terribly sorry.” She sarcastically remarked.

The duo didn’t respond and Azhane’s patience grew thin.

“So… What do you two have to say for yourselves?”

Don glanced up from her question with a confused expression, not sure of how he should respond.

“I'm sorry Your Excellency, but I have no clue what you're talking about.” He said with a fairly nonchalant tone, not realizing the severity of their current circumstances. Azhane stared back in annoyed silence, trying to hold back her anger.

“Two days ago… You and your partner here assaulted a group of travelers. Ring any bells?”

Don looked over at Kat and shrugged before turning his attention back to the Queen.

“What about it? All we did was rough up some dumb kids and an old lady. What do you care? Besides, it wasn’t even in Volaire.”

“Yes, Your Excellency, this didn’t occur within your region. We wouldn’t dare to sully up your precious nation with our line of work.” Kat cautiously chimed in, trying to further convince her.

Suddenly, the room became heavy and cold as immense pressure built. Everyone began to sense the Queen’s overwhelming power seeping out. Don looked at Azhane and saw her staring at him with the most haunting, horror-inducing red eyes he had ever seen. Her rage was boiling over and had reached its limits.

“I. Do. Not. Care where you committed this crime… All I know is that one of those ‘dumb kids’ you roughed up was my sister, a member of the Belouis Royal Family... She’s in a coma because of you insects.”

Kat and Don’s hearts dropped to the ground and they went completely numb, now knowing the hopelessly grave situation they were in.

“I want to know every single detail of why you attacked them and who hired you.” She continued with a dark tone, gripping the armrest of her throne tightly.

Kat turned towards Don, hoping he had some way to weasel out of this situation. However, to her surprise, he was completely silent and staring at the ground with an incredibly terrified expression. She fixed her gaze back to the Queen and quickly responded.

“W-We don’t know anything. It was just a regular job! The person who put out the listing never revealed themselves!”

Her reply did nothing but add fuel to the fire and she would soon realize that the Queen of Volaire was not someone to be trifled with.

Azhane glared deeply at Kat with her smoldering red eyes, knowing that she was lying. She then slowly pointed her right index finger at Kat and a tiny black orb appeared. The orb suspended itself above her fingertip and with a light push, Azhane fired off the tiny black dot toward Kat’s leg. It hit her left shin and rapidly expanded in size, engulfing the knee and everything below that point. Within a split second, the orb shrunk back down and dissipated, revealing nothing left behind.

Half of Kat’s leg was completely gone, as though erased from this existence. There was no blood, no flesh, nothing but a clean shave from the quick expansion of the strange orb. Kat dropped to the ground and screamed out in pain, now feeling that the bottom half of her leg was missing.

“Stop wasting my time with your obvious lies. You better answer my questions girl, otherwise I promise you, today will be your last in Alaira.” Azhane said with a cold and dangerous stare.

Don finally snapped out of his daze and looked over at his partner squirming on the floor in grave pain, fear filling his consciousness quickly. He then turned and faced Azhane, ready to spill everything in hopes she would spare Kat’s life.

“T-The job was for a man named Richard Allmark! He’s been putting out listings for mercenaries to gather objects for a handsome reward. We were tasked with finding a key of some sorts. Oh, and, and, there was another man with him when we gave him the key. He wore all black robes with a weird, white lined symbol. T-That’s all there was to the job! I S-Swear Your M-Majesty!!” Don pleaded, displaying highly uncharacteristic mannerisms for him.

Azhane touched her chin and thought for a second before speaking.

“Richard Allmark you say? One of the head deacons of the Holy Core Church? Hmmm…”

As soon as she finished speaking, Don vigorously nodded and hoped that this information was enough to grant them some kind of freedom.

“Very well... Thank you for your honesty. That was probably the smartest thing you did all year. Guards, take them away. I’ll deal with them later.” She said, wanting them out of her sight.

The guards grabbed and pushed the two mercenaries out of the room, taking them to the dungeons below the castle. As the throne room emptied out, Azhane shifted her attention to Graymoor.

“Graymoor, do you feel like going on a little trip with me?” She asked with a cunning smile.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

He gave her a firm nod and stepped forward, graciously accepting her request. Nadine quickly wondered what she was planning.

“Where are you going my lady?” She questioned with slight concern. Azhane approached Graymoor and rested her hand on his arm.

“Oh, just paying a little visit to the Holy Core Church.”

Then in an instant, the two teleported from the room, nowhere to be seen.

Azhane and Graymoor arrived at the outskirts of the Holy City of Volta in the Lumen Theocracy. Within a blink, they had traveled thousands of miles and were in a completely different nation. The architecture of the city was very pristine and quite baroque in nature, having multiple buildings with large golden domes and all white walls. The culture of this region was significantly different than that of Volaire.

The two looked forward and saw a fairly large house a few meters in front of them. Azhane walked up to the home and gently placed her hand on the brick wall. Suddenly, the entire house was engulfed by a rapidly expanding blackhole-like orb emerging from her palm. Everything within the home’s area was erased from existence, just by touching the black orb.

\Graymoor’s eyes went wide as he witnessed the Queen’s menacing power on display, a sight he hadn’t seen in quite some time. Many referred to her as the Demoness of The Void because of her terrifying and effortless command of dimensional space.

As a Calamity class Vesta, Azhane Belouis’ skill sets were otherworldly and incredibly dangerous. Should she use them at full strength and without restraint, they would leave behind a wake of unprecedented destruction.

The deep black orb quickly shrunk back down and dissipated, leaving nothing but a massive open field, the foundation of the house, and a man sleeping in a bed. The man laying there was none other than Richard Allmark, the glasses wearing individual that the mercenaries colluded with.

He awoke from the cool morning air cutting his face, wondering why it was suddenly so cold. He looked around at the grassy hills surrounding him and Richard screamed out, wondering what happened to his house.

Azhane requested Graymoor to fetch Richard and bring him to her. Graymoor quickly did so, tying the man up and putting a gag in his mouth with impressive quickness. He dropped the man in front of Azhane and she bent over, gripping his chin tightly while staring at him with her vivid red eyes.

“Don’t worry Deacon Allmark. I’ll be sure to make this quick.”

She smiled and let go of his face with a forceful push. Richard squirmed and frantically groaned, scared by what was currently happening. Graymoor slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and Azhane touched his arm again, teleporting them to another location.

A split second later, the group found themselves in the lobby of the Holy Core Church, at the center of Volta. The lavish hall greeted them with impressively tall white pillars and golden tapestries donning an image of a crystal emerging from a book. Moments later, some guards on duty yelled out at the intruders.

“Halt! Who are you and why have you appeared on these hallowed grounds!?” They dutifully asked, readying their weapons with great haste. However, after they noticed her face, the short silver hair, and those alluring red eyes, the guards immediately bowed their heads.

“Ah, Your Majesty! Forgive our rudeness!” They said, scared of the consequences for their blatant disrespect towards another nation's royalty.

“It’s quite alright. I need to speak to the High Priest, Leo Vaux’hallah. It’s a rather urgent matter.”

“Oh. Uh, sorry Your Majesty but you will need to schedule an appointment. The High Priest doesn’t accept walk-in meetings like this, not even for the leaders of other nations. I can tr-.”

Before the guard could finish his sentence, Azhane looked coldly at him with devious dark eyes.

“Move..”

Chills went down his spine and he quickly stepped aside, terrified by her incredible energy. They entered and headed towards the main service hall, where High Priest Vaux’hallah typically resided.

A guard ran ahead shouting to the High Priest, “Your Holiness, the Queen of Volaire, Azhane Belouis, is here for a meeting!” Leo glanced up from his chair and couldn't help but be confused by the announcement.

“What? Why would she be here? I didn’t have a meeting with her.” He loudly asked, wanting some answers.

The grand doors of the service hall flew open and there stood Azhane Belouis, followed closely by Graymoor of Two. Graymoor tossed Richard onto the ground in front of them, showing him to Leo. The High Priest was even more confused after seeing his head deacon laying on the floor, tied up and gagged.

Leo and Azhane locked eyes for only a second, but the High Priest could sense that the Volairen Queen was not here for games. Even though he found her sudden appearance to be incredibly irritating, he couldn't help but be curious as to why she performed such theatrics. Little did he know, his curiosity would be sated in more ways than he anticipated.