The Great

Evay Maver: I saw Deven’s eyes glint with malice as he held up his hands and began to teleport everywhere in flashes of extremely bright light. There were a lot of people wandering around the halls and from what I could see they were mostly Politicians. Aurora had told me that Politicians were usually people who had liquor abilities which didn’t contribute much on a battlefield but either increased their intellect or persuasive abilities. They couldn’t do much in a head to head fight but that wasn’t their job–it did make killing them fairly easy though. In this context it also made teleporting and dashing right across their faces really easy as well. Deven flashed out of existence and reappeared in front of a random lady carrying stacks of papers–which she promptly dropped. Deven looked at her with a pained expression and mouthed sorry before apparting off to another room. Aurora’s auburn haired transformed into a shade of violent blue as she sprinted across the huge palace halls. Random people yelped and screamed as Aurora weaved through their bodies like a weasel running through an obstacle course. She flipped over a crowd of older, important looking men carrying briefcases and quills. They stumbled back and Aurora slid across the smooth marble floors peering into random rooms as they flashed in and out of her vision. Millen gave me a giant grin and faded into the shadows as Mena ran after Aurora and Deven, looking frantic and concerned. She started to help random people up while sliding across the floor on a layer of thin ice. Mena frantically helped random people up and apologized to them in a panicky voice, “SORRY! SORRY! DON’T TOUCH THAT ICE!” I looked at Taran and he sighed,

“I know it’s in the name of delivering a declaration of war but they’re having too much fun with this,” I laughed a little and gently let Taran down–leaning him up against a wall. I took a deep breath and relaxed as I let my energy disperse through my entire body. Gold’s Viel adorned me as I began to float up into the air far above everyone in the palace.

Hiem had told me that all of my senses had improved after he modified my body and he wasn’t lying. My sense of smell was so good that I could literally smell people from miles away, and I could tell who someone was based on their scent as well–-I could even smell hormones like adrenaline. My sense of hearing had also improved a lot–to the point where I could hear a specific voice from across an entire city if I really focused. I had noticed that my sense of touch had also improved significantly when me and Aurora had…. Kissed. But I hadn't really tested out my new sense of sight. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and focused on my surroundings. At first nothing happened and my eyes just hurt really bad…..but my vision started to get clearer, and clearer, and clearer, and clearer until something really weird happened. I blinked my eyes multiple times and I shook my head hard before rubbing my eyes viciously. I reopened them but nothing had changed–which was both really good, really bad, and really cool. I could see…..through the walls of the palace. I could still tell the wall was there because of the faded outline but the wall had completely disappeared. I could see the multitude of government officials holding meetings, doing paperwork, discussing things in large groups in front of a giant scroll, and I could even see right through the walls of the various bathrooms in the palace–which I really didn’t want to be able to do. Deven, Aurora, Mena, and Millen were all running around like headless chickens searching for the Royal Guards but I could see them extremely clearly–flying right above the palace dome, preparing to descend in front of the palace doors. I followed them with my gaze as I could track every single one of their movements through the palace ceiling and walls. The two Royal Guards who were sent were different from the ones that I had interrogated–meaning Jugo and Lela were given a break from having to deal with me. I turned towards the others and whistled as loud as I could. A sharp tweeting noise echoed through the palace as Aurora, Deven, Millen, and Mena all sharply turned their heads towards my direction. I slowly descended towards the palace floors as Aurora and the others dashed towards me and slid to a halt. Aurora looked at me inquisitively and I pointed towards the palace doors with a smile, “they’re the ones that are late–you guys tore up the Emperor’s house for nothing.” The huge ivory and golden doors swung open with a loud swoosh as two incredibly powerful figures presented themselves before us. The one on the left spoke in a cold and serious tone as I felt chills go down the back of my spine,

“Hand me Evian’s declaration of war now–I will not ask again.”

Evay Maver: The only way to describe the two Royal Guards was that they were scary–very scary. The one on the right was pretty short and had a dead serious expression on his face. He had dark black eyes, a small scar across his nose, and light brown hair which parted in the middle. He had a handsome face–in a regal kind of way– and wore a large silver cloak with golden filigree and the symbol of the Royal Guards, a majestic winged lion, engraved onto it. The other guard next to him looked a lot less intimidating but something told me that he was anything but ‘not intimidating’. The first thing that I noticed was that he was really tall–about as tall as Geon–and he had a skinner frame. It looked like he hadn’t completely filled out yet almost like me before Hiem had rebuilt my body. He had very light blond hair which narrowed out at the back–making his hair gather into a pointy-shape. It also parted slightly down the middle and swept towards the right revealing his cream colored skin. He had turquoise blue eyes and a lazy smile which complimented his constantly laid back but also cocky expression. His clothes were what really got to me because it did not look like the outfit of a warrior. First of all, he had shiny black glasses with round lenses and thin rims along with an extremely oversized and loose shirt –which made him look even skinnier than he really was. It was bright blue with an orange and yellow stripe going around the base of the shirt and the same golden symbol which the other Royal Guard had on his cloak was engraved into the back of the shirt. His pants were also very baggy and loose but they were far less colorful–being just a lighter shade of beige. He also wore sandals which was really concerning since fighting people in sandals seemed very hard and dangerous.

Aurora gulped and slowly walked forwards before I stopped her in her tracks. She looked up at me with confused eyes before I gently took the declaration out of her hand. These guys didn’t look too happy about their war declaration being delivered so late which was understandable, but I didn’t want Aurora to take their backlash. I was the reason why she was late in the first place and so it was only fair that I take responsibility. She nodded with a pained expression and I gave her a small, reassuring smile. I floated up slightly off the ground and landed in front of the two Royal Guards–handing the older on the declaration scroll. He looked at me with extremely piercing and serious eyes as he took the deceleration out of hands and looked it over. His eyes slowly descended the page as he slammed the scroll back together and looked at me with a cold, expressionless furry. He spoke in a quiet but angry voice, “When was this delivered to you.” I tried to open my mouth but no words came out. My palms began to sweat, my heart rate started to rise, and fear crept into my heart. I didn’t get very intimidated by anyone anymore but this guy was a clear exception. I opened my mouth again but only a small little mutter came out. The taller guard on the left laughed and spoke in a lazy voice, “You’re grinding this dude’s gears a little too hard man–he’s shivering in his boots. Lay off of him and he’ll speak.” The shorter guard glared daggers into his eyes and looked at me with an even angrier expression.

“When did you get this?” I gulped and looked into his eyes–steadying my breathing and nerves.

“Yester–yesterday sir…. Yesterday morning.” I felt an immense pressure crash onto my shoulders as I fell to the ground. All of the others, as well as everyone else in the palace, also crashed to their knees as it suddenly felt like the entire world was put onto my shoulders. My eyes widened with fear, sweat flew down my forehead, and my heart rate went through the roof. The shorter guard spoke with an absolutely furious tone,

“A 48 hour notice…..was given to me… 24 hours after the notice was active…..Do you have any idea, boy, what this means.” I tried to shake my head but I couldn’t look up to meet his gaze–none of my limbs were moving and my voice wasn’t working either. He continued to speak, “The entirety of the Taegan Empire has a mere day to decide what the fate of our people will be. War is one thing but insolence and incompetence among our own soldiers during it is an entirely different matter.” He stomped on the back of my head and slammed my face into the ground. I felt him smother my head under his boot as I saw Aurora’s face fill with anger, pain, and regret. “A couple hundred years ago actions like these could be punishable by death but I don’t know how well the emperor would take one of his precious youth warriors being grinded into minced meat.” He stomped on my face so hard that cracks started to form on the floor of the palace. I heard terrified shouts from the various different government workers staged in the palace and Deven, Millen, Aurora, and Mena all tried to help but they couldn’t move a muscle. He stomped on my face again, and again, and again, until blood soaked the marble floors and my face was riddled with cuts and bruises. He picked me up and slammed me onto the ground as I felt my ribs and arms shatter. I got to my knees as pain flooded my senses. The Royal Guard grabbed me by the hair and knelt down to get to my level. Aurora grit her teeth and glared daggers of pure hatred into the guard’s eyes as he stared at me with a cold and expressionless face. “Got anything else to say, boy?” I did my best to open my severely cut eyes and coughed blood onto the ground. He grabbed my hair again and prepared to strike as I braced myself for another very painful impact. A giant woosh echoed out into my ears as the palace doors suddenly swung open with extreme speed. A familiar feeling of dread, death, and eeriness came over me as an extremely pale hand grabbed the guards arm before he could hit me. The guard looked over his shoulder with a furious expression as he glared hatefully into Jugo’s eyes. Lela walked in right behind Jugo and the immense pressure put upon us was suddenly lifted. The guard spoke angrily to Jugo who maintained a calm expression, “What are you doing, Jugo? You’re not going to stop me from punishing insolence are you? You of all people should agree with me on that.” Jugo shoved the guard’s hand away and looked into his eyes with a deadpan expression,

“Causing a commotion in the Royal Palace is unacceptable and so is delaying the delivery of a crucial document for an entire day. But you have created quite the commotion here in the palace and have subsequently delayed the delivery of the Declaration by dishing out your little ‘discipline’ as well. So stop, before things get more…. Messy.” The guard stared at Jugo with anger and hate and suddenly dashed towards Jugo–getting right in his face,

“So are you accusing me of being a poor warrior, are you now?” Jugo scoffed and held up another scroll–one much bigger and fancier looking,

“Do you know what this is? It’s a declaration of war from the Ring of Nations. Do you know what this means? The Ring of Nations can’t officially declare war on a nation since they are not a country but they can agree to back one declaration of war if one of their members chooses to issue one–that declaration of war you're holding right there is the one that they are backing. The fact that this agreement from the Ring of Nations was signed means that all members–nearly the entire developed world–have agreed to go to war with Taegan and our allies. Get Maver some help–we have much bigger matters to deal with now.”