The Great

Evay Maver: A very long and palpable silence roared out into our ears as all of the Royal Guards kind of just…… stared at each other for a little while. None of us dared to move and it seemed like none of the guards wanted to either–until the tall blonde one stepped forward, his usually casual and lazy look suddenly not present on his face. “World wide war is a crazy thing to tackle right now. That can’t be right–if that is right then this might be the end of the Taegan empire.” The shorter one who had beaten me to near death suddenly spoke with a serious and deadly tone,

“That idea is not one that we will ever entertain, Deeno. We will get these two declarations to the emperor and the Imperial government will end up deciding what to do with this situation. Jugo, Lela, you need to get in contact with the nobility–I want them to be present at the summit meeting as well. Deeno, get these children to the warrior home and make sure that they stay there–I don’t want any more trouble from them.” Deeno, the tall blonde guard, nodded and made his way to our side. Jugo walked towards the shorter guard while Lela ran out the door and began to speak in a hushed tone,

“I’ll meet you there Levy.” Levy–which was apparently the shorter guard’s name–nodded and glared daggers into our eyes.

“Get to safety and prepare yourself for battle–we entrust the future of this empire to you.”

Geon Leventen: It was a very shitty and awful feeling when all of your friends went on this really important mission to deliver a really important declaration of war and fight these really strong and foreign people and all you could do is eat non-solid foods while laying in your hospital bed. The worst part of all of that is that I had to eat this mashed up apple, vegetable, and weird leafy mixture that smelled horrible and tasted even worse. I opened my eyes after a very long nap and awoke to the same nurse that had taken care of me on the first day leaning over me. She put a wet towel on my forehead and gave me a new, fresh, white blanket. I tried to speak but it was pretty hard, “thank ... .thank you,” I mumbled weakly and she looked at me with a smile.

“Your vitals and overall health are getting much better. We could take your bandages off and most of your limbs and organs are now fully healed. You will live but it will take you a long time in order to return to the physical state you were once in. You will be available for the Warrior Ceremony in a couple days from now however, and I hope that you feel better by then because many people will be expecting you.” I sighed and nodded with gratitude. I mumbled weakly and tried my best to speak in a friendly voice,

“What’s…..what’s your name?” She looked at me with a slightly surprised look before speaking,

“Sophie, Sophie of house Phylla.” I smiled and spoke again,

“Thank you, Ms.Phylla. I wanted to thank you for helping me and I felt bad since I didn’t even know your name. I’m Geon Leventen,” she nodded and laughed,

“Yes, I was aware of that.” Oh yeah, I’m really stupid.

She giggled a little before handing me some water, “Thank you very much Geon–warriors usually don’t acknowledge the nurses tending to them. Sometimes it’s much worse than just ‘not acknowledging’... I appreciate your words of kindness and I want to say that we believe in you.” I took the glass of water and nodded with appreciation,

“Thank you but you don’t have to believe in me. I’ve got a lot of friends, Taegan has a lot of warriors, and all of us–the students–are kind of dumb, clumsy, and just really, really, stupid at times but when it comes to protecting you guys we’re good. My friends got my back–it's not just me.” The nurse nodded and began to walk out as she gave me a reassuring smile,

“I see your point, Geon Leventen. I guess I should say that I believe in all of you.” Sophie walked out and I went back to staring at the wall, patiently, waiting for my body to heal so that I could finally walk again. I wanted to fly again, I wanted to run again, I wanted to see everyone again, I wanted to stop eating this really disgusting vegetable mixture…..

I wanted to be free.

Taran Brunner: I limped into my black, tuxedo-style suit with embroidered purple flowers on them and tried my best to not trip and fall as I put on my pants. The best part about warrior homes was that usually you were given a very nice room all to yourself and you could do anything you wanted before you had to do stuff. But since so many warriors were coming to the capital for the ceremony certain warriors were put together in one room, and unluckily for me I was put in a room with good old Deven. Deven was a good guy–he could be a little sarcastic and witty at times but as a person he was fine. As a roommate though, he was a little……terrible. Actually scratch that he was absolutely terrible. He left his clothes on the bed in random places, he left his bags and several various items scattered on the floor and under the table, he never dried his hair after showering so his entire pillow and bed were absolutely drenched with water, and to top it all off he literally never slept. It was our last night here since the ceremony was in about…..ten minutes. Deven fumbled out of the bathroom in his crisp, yellow suit with a light, golden flower on his chest. The yellow suit was a lot less of an eyesore than I thought it would be–he looked more like a warm ray of sunshine or a nice warm piece of lemon pie than a giant rubber duck. He tossed me a dark purple rose and pointed to his chest-pocket as he smoothed out his hair, “Put that on–I heard you should do it or something.” I nodded and opened the door as I put Deven’s little rose in my chest pocket and ventured out into the hallways. The halls were filled with various different warriors of all different ages but I could definitely tell that we were on the very young side of all the warriors at this party. Everyone was also dressed in crisp, clean suits and beautiful dresses but they were all grown men and women. Everyone else looked to be in their mid to late twenties while me and Deven made our way through crowds—looking very young in comparison. We walked out of the warrior home and tried to navigate our way through the front courtyard which was filled with even more warriors all trying to get to the Capital Stadium–where our ceremony would be held. A very pretty woman with light brown hair put into a mini-ponytail looked up at me and Deven and gave us a smile. She wore a sparkly navy blue dress which fit tightly around her body as her glistening white skin shone in the moon-lit night. I was super glad that this ceremony would be held in the evening because I really didn’t want this woman to see my face right now. She spoke, “Aw, look Shia, it’s those kids you were talking about. So you're the best of the best among the youth, huh. Looks like you have a lot of work to do.” I nodded while trying to keep my eyes on her….eyes and Deven looked like he was trying to do the same. We stared at her for a little while before I snapped out of it and asked her the one question I needed to ask her,

“Um ... .yes. We are….Can you give us the directions to the stadium.” She turned to her friend, Shia, who was much taller than her and had long, wavy black hair with light brown skin. She was also very pretty but seemed much more serious than the woman we were talking to. She nodded and montined for us to follow,

“Follow us or the crowd–we’ll be there in a little bit, just try to keep up.” I nodded at Deven and we both followed the very attractive women through a crowd of super strong warriors. It was all a very surreal feeling and I didn’t know how to really take it all in. I was here now—here as a warrior who would be recognized by the entire empire. I always wanted to be in this position but I didn’t think it’d happen like this. I wanted to be serenaded in front of a large crowd in the morning sun, in front of my family, and in a time of peace…. Now everything just felt a little harsh and intense…. almost like everyone wasn’t cheering us on but saying, “hey, we really support you and love you but don’t mess up and die—or else we’ll all be dead! No pressure!”

Shia, the taller girl spoke up as she and her friend slowed down to walk besides us, “I hope you guys are ready to stand around for a while—ceremonies like these are usually pretty boring.” The shorter girl with the pretty dress—or maybe just a pretty body in a normal dress—laughed and spoke up,

“Don’t be such a downer, Shia, you guys will be fine. We’re going to meet up with our squad soon so if you guys just stand next to us and follow what we’re doing you’ll be ok.” Deven gave her an awkward smile which she returned. He immediately folded under the pressure and broke eye as he fiddled with his sleeves awkwardly. I smiled at him and he looked at me with an angry expression. I looked at the shorter woman and spoke,

“You said squad right? Are you assigned one when you enter into the military? How are you organized and how many people are in a squad—sorry about the questions I’m just curious you know? Also I didn’t get your name, I’m Taran.” I gave her a causal smile and she smiled back,

“I’m Brie, of house Flora, nice to meet you. Me, Shia, and two other people make up our own little squad. Each squad has four people except one squad, the Main Taegan Operations Squad, but they’re none of your concern. You get assigned one based on what your liquid abilities can do and what type of experiences you have with working with others in the past. Multiple squads makeup battalions and multiple battalions makeup legions. There are twelve legions in the Taegan military and each legion has one leader—called a general. Each battalion has a leader called a lieutenant and each squad has a leader called a commander. The chain of command causes each leader to report to their superior and everyone reports to the general of the Main Taegan Operations Squad—the leader of all twelve legions.” My ears perked up,

“Who’s that?” Shia and Brie looked a little star stuck while they spoke,

“Captain Kai, Kai of house Azure. He’s the strongest warrior in all of Taegan—excluding the nobles and the royal guard and obviously the emperor. I’ve always wanted to meet him—he’s so hot.” Deven looked a little jealous while I looked at him and laughed,

“Oh…. I see. Well how exactly do you get into the Main Taegan Operations Squad?” Brie spoke again while we got closer and closer to the Capital Stadium–a massive sandstone coliseum held together by beautifully crafted pillars,

“Well you need a recommendation from your squad commander and your battalion lieutenant, and your legion general. Without one recommendation you can’t get another so if you somehow manage to get all of those you will be put through a rigorous selection process where you will be judged by the emperor of Taegan himself. So if you get in—you deserve it.” I nodded as Deven spoke up for the first time,

“I’ve always wondered why those warriors have titles—like what’s up with the adding stuff after their names?” Shia spoke up for the first time in a while,

“They’re titles show what role they have in the Main Taegan Operations Squad—MTOS, or M-Toss for short. Each squad—even the normal ones—have four different warriors all specializing in one different area of combat. You have one warrior who’s a Long Range Specialist, one warrior who’s a Ground Scaling Specialist, one warrior who specializes in intelligence, and finally the squad commander. Long range specialists give cover fire from afar with their abilities, the ground scalers often take care of the brutal and large-scale battles on rugged land, the intelligence warriors provide information, and the commander supports everyone—he’s basically your lifeline. All squads are organized like these and when battalions and legions come together each group of specialists gather and work as one big squad. The MTOS is also organized like this but they never gather into a battalion or legion—they usually take on entire other legions and battalions by themselves which takes some pressure off of us normal legions. They’re also deployed for the most important battles or missions.” I nodded,

“So what’s so special about them if they’re organized the same—are they just a really juiced up squad?” Brie smiled and spoke up,

“You’re not entirely wrong—everyone selected for the MTOS is the best among their specialties. But what makes them different is that they have five members. The usual specialists and the most coveted warrior position which every kid in the empire always dreams of having when they’re little.” Deven looked at me with realization and he spoke with a sense of awe,

“The Ace—that’s where that comes from.” He looked at me and we both smiled with joy.

“Ace Warrior,” was a term that everyone used. It usually just meant someone who was a very good warrior and awards commemorating the best performing warriors at tournaments were usually called, “Ace Warrior,” awards. But I never knew that there was an actual “Ace Warrior,” in the official Taegan military. It made me pretty psyched actually—I had a goal to work towards now.

Brie smiled again, “Yep, the Ace has the most unique role in the entire Taegan military. When the MTOS is sent in for a special combat mission or sent to take out a legion all of the MTOS’s job is to set up the Ace in order to take out the squads intended target—whether that be a specific person Taegan wants dead or the opposing Legion’s general. He’s the one which dictates the success of the mission and the one who has the most amount of pressure on them. They’re only job is to kill and fight so they’re usually the best fighters in all of the Taegan military—maybe one day one of you boys will be able to be that Ace, what do you say?” Deven smiled and tried to speak in a confident voice,

“Maybe I can, maybe I wi–” his voice cracked and I stifled a laugh as both the girls also did the same. Deven looked down in embarrassment and he shoved me to the side as all of us started to ascend the stairs of the giant stadium. Literally waves of people were pouring into the multiple entrances present along the bottom of the colosseum-like stadium as people started to walk up and take their spots along a very high platform. From the looks of it we would be looking down upon a large crowd of people who would be listening to us and, at least from what I heard, the nobles and the emperor. After that a chosen group of warriors would be guided towards a party which would let us meet the nobles and the emperor before going to fight. But right now all I wanted to do was sit down because going up these stairs to take my seat was killing my legs, which just about a week ago were literally not there. We finally made it to the top and whatever I was expecting–this surpassed it. A huge crowd of people carrying orange and red lanterns emitting soft, warm, light was stationed below us. Huge torches and glowing, yellow, flaming chandeliers were also hanging above us so that every single one of the warriors were clearly visible in the evening night. Massive rows of warriors were sitting along a huge marble platform and me and Deven looked at each other with one thought.

Maybe the others will be here.

Shia and Brie beckoned towards us and we took our seats next to them. I sat down next to Brie and got a better look at her. Strands of loose hair flowed down her face as her brown hair sat neatly in a bun. Her smooth white skin almost glowed in the dark and all of her very beautiful facial features seemed to lure me into her sights. She smelled great too….. She smelled so good….. She looked at me for a moment before I realized that she wasn’t looking at me but behind me. I turned around and saw two guys–much older than us–walking towards us looking bored and tired. One of them had a buzz-cut and dark gray hair which complemented his serious and sharp eyes strangely well. He had dark skin and was very lean, athletic, and muscular looking and he reminded me of one of those clay statue figures made by the art students back at Eden academy. The other guy had slightly long dark brown hair which was slicked back to reveal his large, black eyes and his glistening white skin. They both looked a little too good–maybe it was because they were older but I didn’t like it. Brie and Shia both beckoned towards them and they sat down behind us and leaned over to talk. The living-clay statue spoke in a smooth and annoyingly nice voice, “How long do you think this is going to take? I want to hurry up and get to the party.” The other guy leaned over Deven and spoke in a laid back voice,

“Do you have water? Shia, you had some didn’t you.” Shia rolled her eyes and handed him a small pouch of water as he smiled and drank quickly,

“Jannik, Marco, where have you been? How did the kids get here earlier than you?” I didn’t know which one was Jannik or Marco but the one with slicked back hair looked at us and smiled eerily,

“Oh, so are you the kids from Eden academy? Wow kids do look a lot younger these days–how old are you, thirteen?” Deven and I looked at him with serious eyes before Brie spoke,

“Stop, Jannik, they’re warriors–the same as us now. Treat them a little better.” Jannik moved his face closer to Deven as they basically stared each other down,

“I guess that’s true but you’re too nice to everyone, Brie, a bit of rough-housing never hurt anyone, right kid?” Deven looked into his eyes with a cold stare before Marco put a hand on his shoulder,

“Stop trying to play with kids, it looks bad.” Jannik shoved Marco’s hand off of his shoulder and laid back in his chair,

“Whatever, what are you’re names–can I ask them that, Brie,” he spoke in a sarcastic voice tone and Brie rolled her eyes,

“Yes, I know his name already, that one’s Taran Brunner but I didn’t get his name.” She pointed towards Deven and Deven spoke in a calm and cool tone,

“I’m Deven of house Piten, nice to meet you.” Jannik, Shia, and Brie all looked pretty normal but Marco looked at me with a surprised stare,

“Oh, Taran of house Brunner. You’re the one that killed that Raga invader, right? I heard about it from the papers, ‘Child Warrior defends Eden Academy Campus from Raga assault,’ was the headline. Are you that Taran Brunner?” They all looked at me with an intense curiosity and I tired to keep my cool,

“Um, yeah. I am–it took me a while to recover but I’m back now.” Marco nodded and spoke again,

“So far you are the only warrior in the entire Taegan empire that has a recorded kill in our ongoing war. Which means that for the time being you’re technically the best of us–I hope you know that means people will know who you are. Jannik, I guess you really did underestimate them–do you think you could’ve killed an enemy soldier when you were a teenager.” Jannik rolled his eyes and leaned further back in his chair. Brie and Shia looked at me with intense eyes before Shia spoke,

“If you have real-life combat experience than you’re a lot farther along than I thought you’d be–I thought bringing in kids who’ve only fought at tournaments was going to be a disaster but I guess not. Speaking of which, if you guys are from Eden Academy do you know that Geon Leventen kid? What about that Evay Maver–the weird one.” I looked at Deven who smiled a little bit before speaking up,

“Yeah, we do know Geon Leventen–we know way more than you would probably like to know. Evay too–although he’s not as weird as you may think.” Marco spoke without breaking his gaze on the crowd below us,

“I heard Geon Leventen is quite the warrior. I agree with Shia in the sense that it will take you youth warriors some time to adjust to real-life battle but clearly some of you have adjusted far quicker than I thought you would. I always thought that Geon Leventen would be fine adjusting to battle though–how would he do against us, Taran, Deven? Would he beat us?” They all stared at me and Deven with extremely intense eyes as I began to realize something. These people had all made it as warriors which in itself was extremely hard. They were probably among the best at their respective academies in their youth and had probably been the strongest among their ages for their entire lives. They weren’t just super laid back and chill–they were really competitive. They always wanted to be the strongest and the best which is why they were able to make it here, and I guess it didn’t really sit right with them that some fifteen year old kid like Geon was being hailed as Taegan’s strongest warrior. I looked at them and tried to speak with honesty,

“I can’t say exactly since I’ve never seen you guys in action but I will say this. I’m pretty strong and Deven is pretty strong too but there are a lot of people stronger than us. I’m sure you’ve all heard about Savain Yeleneta,” all of their eyes filled with intense anger for a second before they regained their composure, “but besides him there are a lot of other super strong people. There’s this super smart girl who can shoot lightning, there’s this girl who can heal people back from critical condition, and there are those weirdly strong people like Evay Maver. But no one–I mean no one–has ever come close to beating Geon. He’s kind of in a league of his own so to be completely honest, yeah he does have a shot against you.” They all stared at me and Deven in silence as Deven whispered into my ear,

“You just told a bunch of super strong psychos that they’re not shit compared to a kid–great job!” I was about to tell him off but a giant horn went off as everyone looked up into the sky. The crowd of people below started to cheer in unison as thousands of their voices merged together to create an insanely loud rumble which shook the very ground itself. I looked up at the sky and immediately realized what they were cheering for. The emperor of Taegan descended down onto our platform from the sky as the four major nobles of the Taegan empire flashed into existence on the very front edge of the platform. I looked at Deven and he stared at me with awe and shock. Brie kept her eyes on the emperor and spoke in a soft voice,

“You can tell us more at the party, for now, don’t take your eyes off of the emperor–you won’t get to see him too often.”