The Great

Taran Brunner: The crowd cheered louder and louder and louder until the emperor raised his hand and a large shush came over the crowd. I had seen the emperor in textbooks and pictures but I had never seen him in person before. He looked very luxurious—almost like he literally emitted glory from his robes, which were blood-scarlet red and stitched with bright golden embroidery. His navy blue hair flowed nicely in the wind and he wore his signature blind fold which hid his eyes. A lot of rumors had surfaced about what his eyes could really do—some said that they could turn people to stone, some said that they could see people’s souls, and some said that he didn’t have eyes at all—which didn’t really make sense but any of those rumors could technically be true. He looked out into the crowd and spoke, “Ladies and gentlemen of the Taegan Empire, I, Emperor Varoun Batara, on behalf of all of the Royal family and government, thank you for being here today.” The crowd cheered again and I began to look around for the others but I couldn’t see them. The emperor spoke again, “We are here today in order to serenade the warriors which will fight for the freedom of the Taegan empire in our upcoming conflict with enemy nations. I encourage you all to share your strength, your hope, and your pride with these men and women who will give anything to guarantee your lives and safety. We ask you to do anything that you can in order to support the effort to keep our empire peaceful and thriving in these future days.” The crowd cheered a little bit before quieting down again. “Our enemies who come from across the oceans will not prevail against us—however united they may be. They have justified their efforts by pushing accusations of violence upon our empire and have taken an aggressive stance upon our people. These ideas will not stand.” The crowd cheered loudly and the emperor continued to speak, “We will fight against injustice, fight against the hatred, violence, and oppression of our enemies,” the crowd fed off of his words and almost seemed to multiply with enthusiasm as they cheered louder and louder, “in times of conflict and war all we have in this world is each other—now not just members of the same motherland but a group of brothers and sisters. The only people who will have your back are right next to you and their trust is in your hands—so I ask you, all of you, to lend your belief in these warriors—because they believe in you.” The crowd absolutely erupted with applause as this new cheer made the one in the beginning feel like a mild reaction. The emperor raised his hand in the air and everyone of the warriors stood up on queue and saluted the emperor and the nobles who saluted the crowd. The emperor put down his hand and turned towards the sky which suddenly burst into bright red flames which illuminated the night. The crowd cheered with shock and awe as a man started to descend down onto the platform and stand face to face with the emperor. The man had dark red hair which was spiked up in the front so that his forehead was showing. He had fairly tan skin and glowing orange eyes, and he sported an ivory white robe which had flame patterns along its hems and sleeves and also a golden crown on the back. It wasn’t very hard to tell who he was—he was Captain Kai, the leader of the twelve legions.

Emperor Batara spoke in a defined and regal voice as Captain Kai knelt down on one knee and bowed his head to the emperor, “Kai of house Azure, Captain of the twelve Imperial Legions and the designated coordinator of the Taegan military, I, Emperor Batara, with the power invested in me officially bestow upon you the powers and duties granted by your title.” The emperor held out his hand and a giant golden scepter shimmered into existence as he grabbed it and placed it upon the captain's shoulders and head. The captain rose and shook hands with the emperor as the crowd once again erupted into applause and cheers. The emperor held out his hands at his sides and looked on with a confident smile, “Steel your hearts and unite your pride for war has finally come.”

Taran Brunner: Getting out of the venue was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I assumed that everyone would just teleport away or blast off into the distance but apparently using liquor abilities in large ceremonies was strictly forbidden. So we all shuffled down the same stairs we had climbed up and flooded out to the courtyard in front of the stadium. There were a lot of chariots lined up in front of the stadium which I assumed were the tides of most of the warriors here. I looked towards Shia, Brie, Marco, and Jannik as they all seemed to go towards a really large chariot pulled by two of the most majestic and gigantic horses that I had ever seen. They were so white that they almost blinded me and their luscious manes as well as their bright blue eyes made them look like something out of a fairytale. Marco looked at me and Deven and motioned toward us, “Get in—we have to be at the Royal Gathering in 20 minutes.” I looked at Deven and he smiled as we both raced towards the giant chariot pulled by two fairytale horses.

As I approached the chariot I quickly realized that it wasn’t so much of a chariot but more like a giant carriage instead. Actually, it was actually more of a mini house than a carriage. The carriage was made of bronze and gold with curtains of pure red velvet hanging on the windows. It had a slanted roof made of black stone tiles and had huge rubies and diamonds embedded into its sides and wheels. It was way too over the top for a carriage but when you were royalty, I guess being over the top was kind of normal. We entered into the carriage and it was even crazier on the inside. Firstly, there was a giant drawer containing wines, grapes, cheeses, and hams as well as a whole table next to the window inside the carriage. It had very comfortable benches along all sides of the carriage and there was a whole fireplace on the very back wall. It kind of looked like a small living room—the only difference being that it was pulled by horses. The best part about the whole carriage though was that our people were inside it—we had finally found them.

Lila, Aurora, Geon, Evay, Mena, Millen, and Nila—as well as Melissa were lounging in the carriage. It was weird seeing them again but it felt right—we had been looking for them after all. Deven smiled as we went to sit down next to them, “Hope you're good at parties man, we’re about to have a crazy one.”