Dantega:Volume 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The End of Royalty.

1000 years after the Apocalypse...

The peace after the apocalypse foretold in the book of revelations never happened. God works in many ways but apparently the promised world peace was not of his agenda from the very start. Thus the world is drastically different after the apocalypse, the map of the land has completely changed.

The continents have been slightly broken apart and shifted closer towards each other, certain countries are now connected making travel much more simple. As a result many different surviving cultures have integrated. Due to the four horsemen of God's Anger, the world is left with 1/3 of its original population. And one of God’s final judgments was to take away all the belongings of the remaining humans as if to give them one final chance to start over.

God’s army was victorious so the decision was with heaven, and to mankind's benefit, heaven is forgiving.

And so the human race has now worked their way back to grandeur, although there are no cars, guns or planes, the cities and roads much more resemble the drawings of ancient Alexandria or the fabled Atlantis rather than the metropolis feeling of a New York or Tokyo. So while the human race is closer to its past intellectual level, they are still slightly behind.

There are three super powers of this new world called Aires. La’Juune of the west, Troy to the north, and Eiyalazo to the east. These three nations have been at an on and off war since their founding, thus bringing hate and animosity that will likely never fade.

Due to the power struggle of obtaining land in each other’s country, many of the people who were once occupied tell of terrible tragedies bestowed on them by the opposing nations.

However, the future is of the utmost importance now so through arranged marriages between the princes and princesses of the three countries, the royal families call a truce to generations of past wars and conflicts and become allies under the bravado of obtaining world peace.

A horse drawn carriage with 20 guards armed with swords, shields, and silver armor moves slowly on a marble road through a rich green forest.

“You should be happy Princess Trojia, this could really be the first step to world peace you know.” said a woman dressed in slight armor, but for the most part is quite under dressed.

There are six women sitting in the extravagantly designed carriage. Four of whom are dressed in nun attire.

However, the one being spoken to is the beautiful fair skinned princess of Troy dressed in an expensive looking white dress.

With an irritated look on the young blonde haired green eyed girl’s face, she stiffly replies, "There’s no such thing as world peace Niomyo. This so called tri-alliance between La’Juune, Troy, and Eiyalazo is just a ploy to see who can gather the most territory from the south, only to declare war on each other once they have what they want. You should know how my mother and the other Kings think by now.”

The princess is only sixteen but is wise beyond her years because she has been raised around and taught by the best instructors and philosophers of her country. This has made her into more of an adult than a teenager.

”Now now, that can’t happen, you’ll have some kind of control over La’Juune in the future as the Princess and then--"

”You’re right, I’ll have to poison the King quickly so I can become the Queen and stop this mess.” Trojia swiftly interrupts her maiden bodyguard, her stern words accompanied by a wry smile.

With a shocked look on her face, the slightly tanned dark brown haired woman exclaims, ”You can’t be serious!?”

”Of course I'm kidding, you idiot."

A loud sigh of relief spread through the inside of the carriage as all the five women hold their chests as to control the nervous beats of their hearts.

”But... I truly don’t want to get married, not like this, and especially not to that spoiled brat of a prince.” Trojia said with a frown and a strained smile.

Paying no mind to the concerned glares of the four nuns sitting across and next to her, Trojia blankly gazes out the window towards the greenery of the forest.

Something in the distance flashes and catches her eye when she says, ”Hey Niomyo, I remember overhearing our archbishop saying that almost half of La’Juune’s population is against these marriages just like Troy... You don’t think that there will be any retaliation from radicals on our brigade right?”

“Of course not, we’ll be meeting with the commander of their army in a few miles for added protection. Besides, I’ll be here to protect you!”

As soon as Niomyo finished talking...

BOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!!

A loud explosion rips through the right side of the carriage, two of the four nuns seemingly disappear in smoke and flame. As the carriage suddenly halts; on the side of the carriage where she is seated, Trojia looks back out the window in shock and sees what the flashing was that caught her eye earlier.

A man clad in camouflage apparel with a painted face is pointing a bow and arrow directly at the window of the carriage.

Directly at the face of the young princess.

One of the nuns sitting next to Trojia shouts, “Get down!!!” as she pushes Trojia to the floor.

The green eyes of the teenager are still frozen as she looks up at the face of the one pushing her down, she sees the woman probably in her mid twenties show a strained smile as a large arrow explodes through the temples of her head.

Blood sprays all throughout the cabin stains the expensive looking white dress of the princess, and on to the unconscious faces of the last surviving nun and the maiden bodyguard Niomyo.

Seeing someone die for the first time, the sheltered princess faints, only to wake up bounded and gagged by a surrounding group of fifteen men.

One man notices the frightened glares of the princess and proceeds to remove the gag cloth from her mouth.

Trojia looks around her only to see the dead bodies of all the armed guards protecting her carriage just moments earlier.

She then nervously asks, ”An ambush? Why? Who are you people!?”

A man approaches dressed in armor with a fur coat; with this outfit it seems like he is the one in charge.

With a content smile he answers, ”We are simply humble farmers just trying to get by little girl. Hmmm, I had a daughter once, she was around your age when the armies of Troy invaded our land and burned down my village. She’d be damn near 30 now if she wasn’t murdered by your army.”

”Where is my bodyguard and the nuns who were with me in the carriage?” Trojia demands, ignoring the story of the man.

Angered by the tone of the princess's voice the man licks his lips as replies, “They’re being taken care of.”

The wise beyond her years teenager knows exactly what that implied and shouts, “Don’t you dare lay a finger on them!”

“Hahaha I don’t think you understand the position you’re in, we are the ones in control not the kings or royal families. We the people don’t want this disgraceful marriage because we can’t forget the evils of your country, and we have the courage to actually do something about it. So guess what princess of Troy? We have you, and your death will solve our problem.”

Trojia looks at the man, disgusted, as his face turns distorted with a twisted smile.

“Of course we will get a fine ransom price before you die, plus it’s not often that one gets a chance to obtain the innocence of a princess.” He then shouts towards the younger men in the group. “Who wants to be the first to take it!?”

Seeing three men shove at each other while making their way closer to Trojia, she finally reveals an expression of fear while thinking to herself that she’d rather die.

One of the young men gets within a few feet of her and reaches out his hand, attempting to grab her arm.

Trojia tightly closes her teary eyes, begging in her mind for someone to help but she quickly comes to the realization that her situation is awfully bleak.

Suddenly a ghastly scream is heard, it’s the approaching young man holding the area where his arm should be, there is nothing there but blood and bone.

Trojia looks up as a reaction to the sound and sees a whitish silver flash in every which direction as her captors collapse one by one.

The red of the blood spatter, the sunlight gleaming through green of the trees, and the whitish silver flash slaying the demon like men gives off the sight of a glorious angel coming to the salvation of a damsel in distress.

As quickly as the flash started, the blur of the moment ended, all the men who sought to kill the princess were writhing on the ground in pain.

In the midst of all the carnage stood a light brown skinned man with silver hair wearing a white long sleeved shirt with an etching of an abstract dove on it. He holds a red diamond sword that’s of an unfamiliar shape compared to the weapons of this day and age.

He turns to look at Trojia with his unusual light green eyes that have pupils that look more like a reptile than a human.

He politely smiles revealing two overly long canine teeth and tenderly asks,

“Are you okay?”

Trojia, still in shock cannot utter a word, she is still overwhelmed by his appearance.

He sheaths his sword, reaches out his hand and unties the ropes that bound the princess's arms; Trojia doesn’t even flinch as her eyes are set on the face of the man who looks only maybe eighteen or nineteen.

He then holds his hand out to help her back to her feet, the sun shining through his silver hair made his appearance even more angel like as she looked up at him.

Trojia obliges and grabs his hand.

As soon as they touch her heart races and beats like never before, through her dried throat she nervously asks, ”Why did you help me?”

The young man smiles and explains, ”Because you were in trouble.”

He turns his body and begins to walk away from her.

Without realizing it, her instincts took over and she grabs the sleeve of his shirt.

“Who are you?”

"My name is Ubica, what’s yours?”

He replied in a manner that says he's only asking so he can get the conversation over with quickly.

Fumbling her words with excitement she says, “Eh-ah, m-my name is Trojia…”

Before the man named Ubica could say anything more, a sound is heard in the distance of the marble road, it’s the sound of approaching horses and voices. After a few short moments they are now visible, it is the La’Juutian army on its way to the late rescue.

Ubica looks at Trojia with another smile and says, “Well, even though it was short, it was a pleasure to meet your acquaintance. You should be safe now, I’m glad you’re alright!”

He then waves goodbye and jumps freakishly high over the trees and disappears from sight.

Trojia only had time to shout, “Wait!”

But it was too late, she then says under her breath with a saddened expression.

“I never got to thank you….”

---

(PART 2)

The La’Juutian army arrives at the scene with Niomyo in tow, overwhelmed with happiness the princess’s body guard runs at Trojia while exclaiming, “Princess! I'm so glad to see your okay!”

She then gets on her knees, with sorrowful eyes to the floor she says, “I'm so sorry... I failed to protect you, please punish me as you deem fit princess.”

Trojia ignores the words of her servant and with a concerned glare she asks, “What did they do to you Niomyo?”

Surprised at the princess’s question, Niomyo hesitantly replies, “No they didn't do anyting, thank goodness the army came just in time to save me... But our nun Sherry wasn’t so lucky, they chose her first.”

It was obvious that Niomyo was deeply troubled by the happenings of this incident so Trojia didn’t say a word.

Breaking their moment of silence, a somewhat deep voice is heard coming from behind them.

“Let’s get going towards the city your highness, our King awaits your arrival. I’ll leave behind some men to bury the dead. And I'll make sure that the attackers will never see the light of another day.”

The voice came from a rather tall black man decorated in an extravagant suit of armor, he is Napoleon Leopolo, the world famous twenty six year old who has been the leading general in command of the powerful army of La’Juune since the young age of fifteen. Next to the king of La’Juune, he is the most hated man in Troy, he is responsible for tens of thousands of Trojian deaths in his eleven year rule.

Napoleon walks to within a couple yards of princess Trojia, he bows and introduces himself in such a humble way it catches the wise teenage royal completely off guard.

“I don’t need an introduction from you.”

The general shows an expressionless face as if knowing exactly what she implied, but purposely ignored the malice in her tone when he asks, "Shall we? “

The group travels for another few hours or so until they reach the apex of a large hill, and over that hill in a valley is the sight of the renowned city of grandeur. La’Juune.

A seemingly endless amount of incredibly designed buildings stretch across the horizon as it gives off a golden bluish tint, this is the first time the princess of Troy ever visited La’Juune and is amazed that the rumors of what it looked like were actually true.

After proceeding down the hill and through the center of the town they are greeted with a parade of people that stretched for miles down the road they traveling on; flower pedals, music, and the smell of food flow through the air.

“Woah! I thought the people of La’Juune didn’t want this alliance?” says Niomyo, who is entranced by all the colors of the surrounding buildings and people.

Trojia, who is equally mesmerized by this but refuses to show it, says with suspicion, “It seems like they were already in the process of celebrating someone else's arrival as well.”

“Huh? I’m sure you are just thinking things Princess.”

“Y-Yeah I guess so.”

After quite some time they reach the obnoxiously large castle of the King, the castle stretches dozens of stories up and seemingly shines in gold as they enter. Almost every member of the army that accompanied them were left at the front gate and only two of them are with general Napoleon who is leading Niomyo and Trojia through the labyrinth like innards of the massive castle.

Finally after what seems like a long walk they are led to the top suite of the castle, it is a luxurious room with gorgeous oak furnishing and rare paintings.

Napoleon informs the two Trojians, “Please wait here and wash up, there is a change of clothes the bathroom for you both, the others will be here shortly so please refrain from taking too long.”

Trojia is a little offended by his choice of words because she felt she was being talked down to.

Just as she was about to say something snippy in reply, she was interrupted by a bowing Niomyo expressing the words, “Thank you for saving my life General.”

Much to the surprise of both women, Napoleon reveals a slight smile and once again humbly replies, “You’re welcome.”

He then shuts the door and the two of them proceed to the bath.

After being told the story of what happened by Niomyo, Trojia is somewhat grateful to the great Trojan murdering general for just a brief moment for saving the life of her precious servant.

Soon after changing into a fresh pair of nicely made clothes, the mood changes when they exit the bathroom and look towards the giant window on the other side of the massive living room. That's when they see the figures of two women with two oddly dressed men; they aren’t La’Juutian, but rather they are the two princesses and bodyguards of the eastern country of Eiyalazo.

“What the hell are you doing here!?” yells the Eiyalazonian princess with pinkish hair and bright purple eyes.

“Hmph, I see you're as loud as ever princess Daey DiVore.” Trojia calmly speaks back.

Eiyalazo and Troy were once allies in a war against La’Juune ten years ago so the two princesses are quite familiar with each other. But after the war was called a truce due to a worldwide drought, the two allies became enemies immediately afterwords because of disagreements in economic policies. They also fought amongst themselves in bloody battles for the rights to the remaining lakes and rivers on the border between the two countries.

The former childhood friends now hold animosity towards one another, though if it was of the opinion of Trojia, it’s simply the over brazen princess Daey who actually holds the grudge dear.

“Um... it is nice to see you again after all this time Trojia.” The light soft spoken voice came from the fifteen year old younger sister of the noisy eighteen year old princess, Niera.

She resembles her older sibling but has different features, her hair is jet black and she has gold eyes. She has always been shy, gentle and kind, much to the opposite of Daey. Trojia very much likes Niera and cares for her greatly because they always got along when they were kids.

"It’s great to see you too, we’ve all grown so much since the last time we were together, It's nice to see you even though I don’t know the reason why we’re all here at the same time.”

The official marrying age of La’Juune is sixteen so the original plan was to have the elder sister Daey, marry the middle prince of La’Juune, and the younger sister Niera, marry the youngest at the same time. But both the young ones are under the age requirement, so it’s odd that Niera was even summoned in the first place.

“We were told that it was important to visit now to officially become engaged to the Princes. We weren’t told that Trojans would be here at the same time! I'm not ready to be around you people yet!” Daey shouts.

Ignoring the insulting tone of her voice Trojia replies, “That’s odd, that wasn’t mentioned to me either. I was summoned specifically to stay here forever as the prince’s wife... This is my first time in this country, I never had to go through some official engagement process."

Everyone in the room was left pondering what could possibly be the reason for this, but it is quickly shrugged off when the large doors open and they laid eyes on the people who stepped in through the hallway.

In walks Napoleon, guiding a priest clad in church garments. The priest is a black man with glowing purple eyes and starch white hair, his facial features don’t match at first sight for his hair looks soft and white and he only looks like he is in his mid twenties.

Behind him walks two teenagers dressed in royal garments, beside the two are what seems to be their body guards, both women.

"Alright then let’s get the introductions over with, you all have met Napoleon, the priest here is Phoenix Navara, and last is my bodyguard Tsubiri.”

Those sarcastic toned words came from the crown prince and rightful heir to the throne of La'Juune, Xavier Courlivet.

“So you didn’t feel the need to introduce yourself huh?” These words came from the other young man next to the crown prince.

Xavier, like a snobby little kid replies, “They already know who I am of course!”

The other young man smiles with an embarrassed look on his face. ”As you might not know this is prince Xavier, and I am Luke, the second prince of La’Juune, and next to me is my bodyguard Sora.”

Surprised at the difference in maturity between the two princes, Trojia and the rest introduce themselves as well.

After the formalities, the doors shut and out comes the questions being pondered just moments earlier, but the questions oddly come from the bodyguard of princess Daey and Niera.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why was princess Niera summoned here for an official engagement while both princess Daey and Trojia never before had to visit for such a reason?” asked the tall man wearing a long coat that covers half of his face so only the darker than black sun glasses can be seen over his eyes. He introduced himself as Cyrus in a previous conversation.

The other bodyguard is an elderly man named Rudo, he is wearing a short sleeved shirt that reveals the abundant amount of scars that tatter his arms. He joins in and asks, “And from what I see here, Niera’s future husband is not present with you all.”

“Geez! It’s not often that a prince gets bombarded with questions by mere bodyguards, know your place you worms!” Xavier exclaims.

Once again embarrassed by his sibling’s words, the much more mature Luke tries to explain, “He is currently attending a military meeting, he should be arriving shortly.”

“What about the king? I do believe this is hardly a matter that can be handled by us ourselves.” Trojia asked.

All of the La’Juutians look at at each other in confusion when Luke softly says, “That’s a good question... we actually don’t know where he is, he was supposed to be the first one here.”

Everyone stood in silence as they thought about the oddness of the situation when they hear an unfamiliar voice coming from the other side of the room.

“He’s dead.”

All the occupants of the room look at the source of the voice with surprise. A young man sits on a throne like chair next to the fireplace, he has black hair and blood red eyes with white pupils. He is wearing a gray coat with a series of small chains that oddly wrap around its innards, giving off a menacing look.

With a faint smile he then says to the confused group of royals, “It looks like everyone I need is here, except for the two stars of the show.”

Napoleon and the guards all simultaneously pull out there weapons and point it at the mysterious man.

“Who are you!? How did you get in here!?” shouts Cyrus.

The intruder mixes his faint smile with an emotionless glare and calmly responds, “I’ve been here the entire time, waiting...”

Trojia is genuinely frightened by this person as he gives off an evil aura that she’s never felt before. But she is somehow able to nervously force out a question of her own. "What do you mean the king is dead?”

The smile leaves the man and with a sharp stare he answers, “I killed him of course. Weak sin-filled men like him are easy to manipulate, once his use was up, I had him die.”

Wondering if to believe him or not, the two princes of La'Juune were truly wary about what he said, they are experiencing a similar feeling to Trojia’s and have no reason not to believe him.

The man stands up and spreads his arms. “The answers to all of your questions lie with me. Though you will find them to be trivial once 'they' arrive... Oh? One actually has just--”

GAAAAASH!!!

A loud sound of glass breaking is heard, in seemingly slow motion the giant window the size of the room has exploded into shards, and in the middle of the ear ringing noise, an even louder scream is heard.

“DAMIEN!!!”

The voice comes from a light brown skinned man with silver hair.

Trojia, the only one who hasn’t prostrated on the ground instantly recognized this person, he is the person that saved her...

The boy named Ubica.

The dust has settled and Ubica is standing in the middle of the large room with his red diamond sword ready to slash down his enemy.

Everyone has gotten up and look in amazement as they come to terms of what just happened.

“What the hell! Did he just jump through the window!?” yelled Xavier.

He spoke the thoughts of the others who know that the suite they are in is at the top of the fifty story castle.

Paying no mind to the physics of the situation cause she has seen the abnormality of this person just hours earlier, Trojia shouts out his name. But the look that Ubica gave her in return was the complete opposite of what he expressed in the forest, a frown filled with hate caught Trojia off guard because she has only seen him smile.

The frown gave way to a confused look as Ubica asks, “Y-You!? What are you doing here??”

Hearing him ask that, she realizes that this boy had no clue who she was from the very beginning, and just like he said, he saved her for no reason other than the fact that she was in trouble.

Before she could reply, the man in which whom Ubica addressed as Damien spoke.

”Very good Ubica my old friend, for a while I thought you wouldn’t come. Now, there's just one more actor to join my play.”

After hearing Damien’s voice, it seemed like Ubica completely disregarded the presence of the others and ran to the attack when the sky outside suddenly turned a maddening black, filling the room with darkness.

The attention of the all the occupants in the room was shifted toward the shattered window because it is the place of origin from which the darkness came.

“Ah, he’s finally here,” Damien said with a faint smile.

Emerging from the darkness is a white haired man clad in black standing on a black cloud, in his right hand he holds an intricately designed scythe.

Ubica, not looking surprised at all clicks his tongue and spits out the name of the man,

“Rage...”

Speechless, Trojia and the rest are frozen with the overwhelming aura of death spewing like toxic smoke from the man.

“You’ve been careless Ubica, today is the long awaited day I obtain your soul.”

“No no Rage, here is where your wrong." Damien interjects. "It’s you who is the careless one.”

Damien is holding out his hand and makes a gesture of a finger snap.

Rage reveals a face of shock. “Damien??”

Ubica smiles but there are no signs of confidence in his voice when he says, “I never would have thought that I’d have the opportunity to kill you both in the same day.”

The tension between the three gave off the feeling of gods saying their final words to each other before squaring off in an epic battle. Naturally, everyone else was curious as to what is happening but the intense vibe from the three sucks the will to speak out of their mouths, all they could do is watch stiffly.

”Everything is going just as planned, if you all have not noticed yet, everyone in this room is here because of my will.”

Ubica looks confused by Damien’s words and Rage has a face of anger as he realizes he was actually too careless.

Rage charges at Damien, scythe in a readied position for a strike.

”It is time for the long awaited return of Father’s army, with this, soon enough, it will become a reality.”

Damien reveals a final look of content and with a snap of his finger he vanishes.

Suddenly a strong tornado like wind blows, the entire room starts shaking violently; all of the expensive furniture is sliding through the room at dangerous speeds. Wooden chairs slam into the walls and shatter, all the broken glass once on the floor is slicing through the air across the entire length of the vicinity.

All one can do is hit the deck and throw one's hands over the neck and head for protection, which is exactly what everyone other than Ubica and Rage were doing. On the contrary, they were simply just standing in the midst of the chaos glaring at one another like there wasn’t even a hint of danger.

Trojia looks up and sees the two men who were standing calmly in the center of the mass of glass, furniture, and other large objects when in the corner of her eyes she sees a large oak cabinet hurling towards her.

Not being able to move due to the shaking of the room, she is currently the textbook definition of being defenseless. All she could do close her eyes and wait for the pain of the broken bones caused by the heavy object slamming into the side of her body.

CRASH!!

The disturbing sound of the cabinet smashing into a person is heard, but it is not Trojia who was hit.

She opens her big green eyes only to see the chest of someone who is embracing her tightly, tilting her head upward the face of Ubica is seen.

He took the full brunt of the force to protect the helpless princess, realizing this, Trojia’s face turns a little blue, she figures he must be terribly hurt after such an event.

“Ubica! Are you alright!!?”

Ubica looks down at her and with a joke of a smile shouts, “What!? I can’t hear you the wind is too loud!”

Trojia can hear him very little but easily picked up what he was saying so she repeated herself, only to have the now laughing Ubica repeat himself as well. By now she knows that he could hear her fine but was just avoiding the question. Feeling safe and secure in the arms of Ubica, she faintly smiles and loosened her tense body in his arms.

After a minute of intensity, the wind and earthquake like shaking halt to a stop.

Ubica helps Trojia to her feet as the others all check themselves for any injuries, to their relief they find that no one is hurt.

As if the moment of kindness towards the endangered princess never happened, Ubica’s facial expression turns cold as he shifts his body toward Rage.

“Well then, it seems I can’t just avoid you anymore. I gotta say I'm tired of running from death. Just know this, there is no way I will die before I get what I want out of Damien, so I will not lose.”

Ubica draws his sword and points it at Rage.

Without flinching Rage calmly speaks. “I don’t believe us fighting is all too wise.”

“Why’s that?”

“You can feel it right? You should know where we are, you are going to need my help, and I am going to need yours.”

”After all these years of trying to kill me you expect me to just call a truce?" Ubica sighs and lets his guard down. "Well, by looking outside I guess I have no choice.”

The rest of the group look towards the broken window, what catches their attention is that there is no longer a view of the city of grandeur, but only the color of gray clouds can be seen.

Rage looks at the crowd of royals and then shifts his attention back toward Ubica.

“This is bad...”

Ubica takes a deep breath and asks, “Is it what he said about his father’s army rising again? Isn’t that impossible?”

“Do you have any idea who is standing behind you?” replies Rage.

Ubica looks back at the group of weary and confused royals and thinks nothing of them.

Rage continues to speak, “There are heirs to the throne of the three largest countries on Earth in that group.”

Ubica now gives off a look of surprise.

But right as he was about to speak the panicked voice of Xavier is heard. “What the hell is going on here! Who are you people!? Answer me!!”

Both Rage and Ubica look at him dejectedly and simultaneously say,

"Shut up.”

Xavier looks stunned by what they said and shouts, “You bastards! How dare you speak that way to the prince of La’Juune!”

Ubica laughs it off and ignores him but Rage moves closer to the young prince, grabs his collar and with a mild hint of anger says, “Listen boy, in this world, there is no such thing as royalty.”

Shocked and scared, Xavier backs toward the door and he grabs the handle. “H-Hey why aren’t my body guards attacking these monsters!!? Napoleon!! He threatened me, you saw him threaten me!!! Tsubiri kill him!”

Napoleon looks at his cowardly prince with a dejected glare, it is obvious he has no intentions of making a move on his behalf.

Tsubiri on the other hand looks completely determined to follow the orders from her master, but her legs can’t move due to the dark aura of fear surrounding Rage.

Naturally, Xavier took their reactions as blasphemy, feeling betrayed he opens the door to the hallway and shouts, “I’ll have you two killed for this, I don’t need you guys! My father will execute you for insubordination!”

He runs out the door and instantly finds himself falling uncontrollably into the thick gray clouds, before he could even scream he was grabbed by both Napoleon and Tsubiri.

His life was saved by the very people he had just threatened to have executed.

Once pulled in the room, Xavier sits against the wall obviously struck with the feeling of shame at his actions along with the undeniably helpless feeling of falling out of the sky.

“Damn I was kind of hoping he’d fall to his death, it would’ve been much quieter if he had.” Ubica said sarcastically.

Trojia shoves him in jest and says, “Hey now, that’s a mean thing to say.”

Xavier lifts his wary head and shows her a face filled with gratitude. “Thank you princess Trojia, even though everyone else turned on me at least I know that my future wife is supportive.”

Trojia’s face turns pale, she has forgotten about the marriage until now. She has always disliked the spoiled prince of La’Juune since the first time she met him. During the peace talks after the war ten years ago, the King of La’Juune met with the Queen of Troy and brought his little eight year old son along, and in Trojia’s eyes he hasn’t changed at all since, still arrogant and still spoiled.

“What? You want to marry this guy??"

"Of course I don’t Ubica! It’s just, it’s just that I have no choice in the matter...”

Ubica tilts his head and asks, “What do you mean you don’t have a choice?”

“I guess you really didn’t know who I am, the truth is I'm the princess of Troy and my mother and his father, arranged the marriage between us.”

Ubica stands speechless when Rage interjects, "We have much larger things to worry about now, so you can both stop this pointless conversation now.”

Responding to his words, Napoleon walks towards the giant broken window. “I agree, so if you don’t mind, would you kindly explain to me where we are and who was that man earlier that claimed to have killed the king?”

Looking at the calm demeanor of the legendary general, Rage felt much obliged to answer his question. “That man’s name is Damien, he is the son of the devil and has brought us to Purgatory... The world between Heaven and Hell.”

Upon hearing this, the up until now quiet priest exclaims in surprise, “Purgatory!?”

Napoleon looks at the royal priest and begins to have a feeling that they are involved in something beyond human comprehension.

"I take it you don’t read the Bible much general?” Rage asks.

“That’s correct, the teachings of the Bible would only get in the way of my job.”

Hearing his words, Rage halfway smiles and says, “I think you and I will get along well in the near future.”

Ubica breaks his silence, he turns his back to Trojia in an almost guilty fashion before saying, “If I would have known what your situation was when we first met, I would’ve done something to help.”

Trojia is now blushing by the kindness of Ubica but before she can speak...

CRACK!!!!

The room starts to shake again and now is breaking apart.

“We’ll finish answering the rest of your questions when we get to the ground.” Rage says while he raises his scythe.

Ubica suddenly embraces Trojia and with a smile looks at the scythe bearer. “I assume you can handle the rest right!? I’ll see you on the surface!”

With the princess in tow he jumps out the window into the dense gray clouds and disappears.

“Princess!!!” shouts a horrified Niomyo.

She runs after her only to be stopped by dark black clouds with a frightening looking man standing on it.

“She’ll be fine. If you all want to live, gather what you feel is important and come with me.”

Hesitantly, the royals still skeptical of the reality of it all begin to gather items in the room that might be necessary in the near future, and grab extra clothes and weapons once in cabinets that are now scattered around the room. The group joins Rage on the evil looking black cloud and float like a feather towards the ground.

Seeing the structure of the living room dissolve from outside on the cloud was quite an astonishing spectacle. The only form of stability holding the suite are four extremely large pillars on each corner that are fading in and out of the moving gray of the thick clouds. The most amazing thing about it is that there was once the fifty story castle of La’Juune beneath the room where the pillars are now. One can’t help but believe that they truly have been taken to a different world.

Tightly held by Ubica, Trojia is free falling rapidly towards the ground, but the princess is not afraid in the least, she has an odd sense of security in such a situation. Even though the wind is loud she feels she can hear his heartbeat as her head rests on his chest, and entrances her in an unwavering calm.

After a couple minutes the speed in which they are falling drastically decreases and halts when they land on the ground like a butterfly on a flower.

Trojia, still embraced looks up at a smiling Ubica and with the sunlight breaking through the clouds and shining on his silver hair, she works up the courage to finally do what has been on her mind since they first met a few hours earlier.

Trojia moves her face upwards and kisses the lips of a surprised Ubica.

“That’s for saving my life... Thank you.”

They are both looking into each other’s eyes, and not reading the atmosphere well at all Ubica cracks a joke.

“Oh? If a princess kisses a lowly man like me, wouldn't her husband want to punish her?”

“He’s not my husband! At least not yet...” she pauses for a moment and with a flustered red face continues. “I didn’t want my first kiss to be with him, I don’t want anything in my life to be with someone I don’t want be with. But I guess its unavoidable.”

“You’re wrong.”

"..?"

“You won’t ever have to do something you don’t want to.”

“What do you mean?”

"I mean that I’ll make sure that you aren’t ever forced into anything, once we get back I will make it so that you will never get married to that noisy brat. If you want, I promise I will always protect you.”

Trojia’s heartbeat is now moving extremely quick, looking to the floor, she softly speaks, “Why?... We haven’t known each other for too long, why do you want to help me so much?”

Ubica fumbles his words at the question. “I don't really know, I guess it's because you remind me of myself a little?”

About to speak more, Ubica is stopped by the sight of the rest of the group floating gently towards them on a large dark black cloud.

He begins to walk where they are landing and on his way he turns to Trojia, with a strained smile he gently says,

“Let’s go.”

---

(PART 3)

The sight that is seen is a lush green grassland, the occasional tree, and many flowing rivers and large lakes. One would never expect that they are in a different world other than Earth. The terrain of the land is actually quite beautiful as the sun shines through the clouds onto the water and grass.

The group has been walking for hours now and there is no end to the view that the tired royals have seen since the beginning of their journey.

“Let's rest here, It’ll be night soon.” said Rage, fatigue not anywhere near apparent in his body language.

Soon after they stop the rather loud voice of Cyrus replies, “What? The sun is still high, it won’t be dark for a few hours, we should keep moving.”

Ubica hears this and with a slight chuckle says, “We’re not in a world as predictable as Earth, no matter where the sun is it could be night at any moment, I recommend taking his advice. This is probably the most peaceful place in Purgatory, but it can still very dangerous at night.”

Silenced, Cryus hides his discontent by lowering his face further in the long neck of his coat.

“If we’re gonna stay here then, how about I go gather some water, and perhaps I can find some food by one of these lakes?” asked Tsubiri.

“Don’t go anywhere near that water, It’s not safe for you. I’ll take care of everything for tonight.” Ubica politely replied.

Ubica grabs a few of the canteens that were grabbed from the room and gets ready to walk off.

“You can handle the fire right?”

He asked this to Rage as he walks toward the nearest body of water and disappears in the haze of the rapidly setting sun.

The group begins to form a circle under a patch of trees and casual conversations begin to start. Napoleon walks back with a burrow of wood and places it in the middle of the circle, he then begins to rub some sticks together in an attempt to light the little bit of kindling he found on fire.

“That’s not necessary.” says Rage.

He grabs his scythe, and with it he simply touches the pile of wood on the ground and with a flash it is engulfed in flame that lights the whole area.

“I’ll make sure this fire won’t go out, so don’t worry about gathering any more wood.”

Napoleon shows a calm face but with a twitch of his eyebrow in curiosity, he asks, “How did you do that?”

It’s now completely dark, under the dazzling star filled night sky the group begins to huddle in their blankets to get ready for the first night. The outside living is totally new to the royals and their body guards, the only one used to it is Napoleon because he has been in this kind of situation countless times on the battlefield. Rage is leaning on the tree with his eyes closed while the rest chat about random things.

Trojia stops her talking when she realizes that Ubica has been gone for more than an hour, she thinks back on what he said about the night and water being very dangerous so she begins to worry. Thinking the worst, Trojia quietly gets up and sneaks away from the circle and heads in the direction of the lake that Ubica was heading to.

After a few minutes of walking she encounters a hill, what she sees when she gets to the top is a view so amazing that it nearly took her breath away. There are three moons all spread throughout the distance, the sky is flushed with the many different colors of stars that are all shining brightly on the lake. A soft cool breeze blows through the moonlit grass and her blonde hair.

Mesmerized by the scene, she looks around the area and spots a white long sleeved shirt near the shore of the lake, the closer she walks to it she can clearly see the rest of the garments worn by Ubica.

Trojia has yet to see any movement in the water, so panic pokes at her chest as she pictures a drowned Ubica.

Its been about ten minutes, she is now pacing back and forth uncontrollably, becoming more and more frantic by each passing second she shouts out his name at the top of her lungs but to no avail, the water remains still and no movement outside of the lake in sight.

She walks to the shore of the lake while asking herself, (What do I do?)

Tears begin to form in her green eyes when she notices the sound of bubbles popping, she looks toward the sound coming from the lake and sees the bubbles form and pop more rapidly with each second.

The water expands like an inflating balloon and then

BOOOOOOSHHH!!!

A huge splash is heard and water is flying all over; through the water one can clearly see the silhouette of an extremely large fish the size of a mid size car.

Trojia’s face is full of shock as she watches the giant fish fly towards her at a crazy speed.

Thinking she is going to be eaten she instinctively shuts her eyes and curls up in a ball.

“UBICA!!!” she shouts without realizing.

But much to her surprise she hears the sound of the huge fish land on the ground far out in the distance over her head.

“Trojia? What are you doing here?”

Of course, the voice is none other than that of Ubica.

With tears in her eyes she looks at his confused face and leaps forward and embraces him tightly.

“You’ve been gone for so long you idiot! I was, I was so worried.”

“Eh-um... I appreciate your concern I really do, but I don’t think now is the right time for you to talk to me.”

“Why not- EEHH??”

Trojia is taken aback when she looks down and realizes that she is tightly hugging a completely wet and naked Ubica, her face turns bright red as she pushes him away and covers her eyes.

“P-P-P-P-Put your clothes on you pervert!!!”

“Hey I’m not the one who is perverted! You grabbed me!”

“Why the hell are you naked in the first place!?”

“Isn’t it obvious!? I’ve been swimming in the lake to find us all dinner!”

“Alright alright! Just put your clothes on already!”

“I have to dry off first stupid!!”

Trojia now has her back turned to Ubica who is in the process of getting dressed, she looks up the small hill and sees the massive fish that flew out of the water. It’s fairly apparent that it is dead but she is still slightly afraid of it, she has never seen a fish that large after all, the size of its mouth could easily swallow a human whole.

“How did you catch that thing?”

“Hmm? Well I jumped in the lake and spotted it right away; I figured that it’d be the perfect amount for everyone so I swam after it, it ran away though so I was chasing it for a while. Huaaaah~ who would’ve thought that the lake was so deep! That really wore me out.”

Trojia is actually disappointed at his explanation because it seems he is trying to downplay his inhuman abilities.

“Alright I’m all dressed up, you ready to go?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Walking to Ubica’s side she looks at him dragging the large fish on the ground effortlessly, once again it amazes her cause she is getting fatigued just from holding the three canteens filled with water that he brought, and she figures that the weight of the fish has to be well over a ton.

She wants to ask him how he got so strong, she wants to ask him who he really is, she wants to know everything about him, but for whatever reason she is afraid to ask.

The two reach the rest of the group and they all stand to their feet when they see them.

“Princess!!! Please don’t run off like that without telling me!” exclaims Niomyo as she sighs in relief.

Ubica looks at Trojia getting scolded by her body guard and chuckles a little. “Okay who’s hungry?”

“Whoah look at the size of that thing!!” Daey shouts.

Everyone is amazed at the size of the fish and all have something to say about it. The rest of the night proceeded just like this as they all enjoyed a huge dinner.

The vibe of the night was truly filled with no worries at all, until Niera’s elderly bodyguard speaks, “Now, would you mind telling us exactly what’s going on?”

As if expecting the question to be asked sooner or later Rage begins to speak.

“I’ll start with introducing myself.”

The group goes silent.

“My name is Rage... I am the Angel of Death.”

The power of Rage’s words sent chills down the spine of the bystanders, even the usually calm Napoleon felt a little unnerved at this, but he soon comes back to form and is actually thinking to himself that it is surprising they haven’t met sooner in one of his death filled battlefields.

“The one who sent us here is named Damien, like I said earlier, he is the son of Satan the devil.”

“It’s hard to comprehend things like this.” Napoleon said while rubbing his temple.

“That’s because you’re not a believer.” These words came from the priest Phoenix Navara.

"That man said that he killed our father, is that true?” asks Luke.

“In order to fulfill his plan, killing the King is a necessity. Unfortunately, I do believe your father is dead.”

Both Xavier and Luke slump their shoulders, they didn’t cry, even though the king is their father, they didn’t know him all too well as a person.

“So what is Damien planning by sending us here?” asks Napoleon. It would seem that his king's death didn't affect him at all.

Rage shows a look demanding the utmost attention of the group.

“Imagine how the people of your country are going to react to the death of their King, and the disappearance of the beloved general along with two of their Princes? The same thing applies to Troy and Eiyalazo, they are all going to blame each other for the vanishings. La’Juune is now in a weakened state without the leader of their army and the king of the country. The youngest Prince will be crowned the new King and he'll likely declare war on the other two countries. The result will without a doubt be a world war.”

“So what does that have to do with Damien’s plan?”

“It has everything to do with his plan, a thousand years ago Satan’s army rose from the depths of Hell and fought God’s army on the Earth’s soil... At that time, a world war was the key to harvesting enough wayward souls to allow them to rise. But this time is different, I won’t be there to gather all the souls and send them to their rightful place, so all the souls of the departed will easily be stolen by the Devil's reapers.”

“I don’t get it, why would he go through all the trouble to send us here? Couldn’t he have just killed us in that room?” asked Cyrus.

Ubica replies, “No, other than possessions and a few other tricks, demons of Hell don’t necessarily have much power on Earth. Damien is a different story though, but I'm sure he used a substantial amount of power just to send us here. He wouldn't want to risk fighting Rage and I at the same time on Earth so he chose the easier option. But Purgatory on the other hand might as well be Hell itself for them. Damien will send countless demons to kill us. So don’t any of you ever let your guard down.”

Startled by the thought of never being safe, Xavier speaks, “W-Well can’t you just send us back to Aires? Don’t you have that ability?”

“No, I don’t." Rage answers. "I can only travel from Hell, Heaven and Earth, Purgatory is a separate world than the ones I have freedom of passage to.”

Daey, who hasn’t said much most of the night stands up and looks at the stars with a frustrated look. “So what exactly are we supposed to do then, sit here and wait for him to catch us?”

Ubica and Rage look at each other as if wondering which of them is to speak, instead both end up saying at the same time.

“There is a way out of here.”

The comments of the two immediately catch the attention of the group, beginning to grow wary of being pestered by questions Rage explains.

“Just like Hell, there are different levels of Purgatory in which you must go through in order to escape. Whereas Hell has seven of them, there is only five in this world, if we get past the five gates of Purgatory we will end up somewhere back on Earth. It is our only way.”

Relief strikes the crowd that thought they were going to be stranded.

“Well that sounds easy enough!” says Xavier.

Hearing this, Ubica softly laughs and Rage chuckles with a wry smile, the relief of the rest turns into an awkward silence as they listen to them.

Rage suddenly halts his light laughter with an eye piercing glare and simply stares at the Prince.

“This world is large, plus we don’t necessarily know where these gates are, and there is an abundant amount of dangers that will follow us wherever we go specifically to keep us from escaping. Unless you change the way you are soon, I can guarantee you’ll be the first one to die in this place.”

Xavier’s face turns blue and he cowers behind Tsubiri.

“Listen, this involves everyone. Some of you will not make it out of here alive, and that is a fact. So don’t be a foolish optimist.”

The faces of the Royals turn pale.

Napoleon, still remarkably calm begins to clarify. “So, I take it we're on the first level, and we need to travel upwards to the fifth in order to escape and put an end the soon to be world war? This is the only way to keep that Damien fellow from being able to resurrect his father’s army of Hell and take over Aires. Naturally there will be obstacles keeping us from passing the Purgatory gates, Damien’s demon allies correct?”

Pretty much exactly spot on with the gist of the situation, Rage felt like he was done explaining things for the rest of the night. One reason is that he was tired of talking, and the other is that he feels Napoleon is truly the only one that needs to know. As the world’s best general, he can grasp the situation properly, and handle the actions of the others himself.

“That’s correct, now I believe it is time for all of you to rest. I sense that we will have quite a long walk before we enter the nearest village.”

This catches the surprise of the group.

“Village!? You mean there are people here!?” inquires Rudo.

Rage frowns and with a mouth full of annoyance is about to speak when he is interrupted by Ubica, “Of course there is. This place wouldn’t exist if there weren’t people occupying it.”

Ubica can see that the elderly man wants more of an explanation but Ubica stuffs Rudo from speaking again.

“I know all of you want more answers, and you’ll get them in due time, but for now just give it a rest. Besides, you don’t wanna see him when he’s cranky.”

It’s been a few hours since the last words were spoken between the group, the royals and their bodyguards are all fast asleep in the thick green grass that actually makes for quite a comfortable bed. The sound of crickets, and other strange animals are serenading the atmosphere around the plains, rivers and lakes. The landscape is truly breathtaking as the different colors of the stars and the three moons reflect gracefully on the gentle windblown lakes that surround the area.

Despite the perfect conditions for sleep, Trojia is awakened by the sound of the firewood cracking, she slowly opens her dark green eyes and yawns gently. After a slight rub of her eyelids she looks in the direction of where she last saw a sitting Ubica, but he is not there, and neither is Rage.

She is not as worried about Ubica’s safety this time; perhaps because she is half asleep, she yawns again and readies to fall back to sleep when she realizes that when she first met Rage in the suite of the La’Juutian castle he was chasing after Ubica to steal his soul.

She immediately jumps out of her curtain of a blanket and scoured around the premises for any sign of where they went.

Walking behind a couple trees she can hear the faint sound of a voice, after walking ever so slowly closer to its source she can sense a serious tone emitting from it.

Trojia can now see Ubica and Rage scowling at each other with a tremendous amount of killing intent.

She is quite frightened by this so she hides herself behind one of the lone trees in the area, now unable to move, she has begun to eavesdrop into a conversation that she feels she might regret hearing in the near future.

“That’s a stupid request Ubica.”

“I never said that it was a request.” Ubica replies.

Rage’s face turns cold and angered when Ubica speaks again.

“That’s right, it was an order. If you tell her of my past I’ll kill you.”

With a twitch of his eyebrow, Rage swings his scythe and points it at Ubica’s face.

“How interesting, what is it that you want me to keep from her? Your age? Your origin of birth? The relationship of you and Damien? She is better off knowing who you really are, she’ll be smart not to get to close to you and your unforgivable sins. Perhaps I should tell her despite your threat.”

“I will not allow her to get involved in the darkness of my world. If you so much as hint to her anything about me, I’ll send you straight to Limbo.”

“You have known her less than a day, why would you care so much as to feel anything towards that child? Is it what humans call love?”

Even though hearing the Angel of death asking this seems ridiculous, Rage asked that question in a serious tone.

“My instincts... I feel an unsustainable need to protect her for some reason."

Rage sees that he is genuinely confused about his own feelings and decides it’s best not to even talk to him.

Rage turns his back and begins to walk away when he says, “I won’t say anything to her about you. But, that girl will become your greatest weakness Ubica, and Damien will exploit that weakness and use it to destroy you. You can try your best to keep her from our darkness, but you should know that it is unavoidable. Sooner or later all of them will see the horrors and the true disgusting reality of the battle between us and them... Oh and Ubica. when we get back, I will take your soul, and destroy it once and for all.”

Rage rides out of sight on his black cloud and leaves a stiff Ubica in his wake.

He clinches his fist violently and releases it with along with the tension of his shoulders. He looks up at the diversity of different colored stars and softly says to himself, “Why the hell am I feeling this way..? Love huh? That kind of thing isn't even possible for someone like me.”

Trojia stands shocked and silent behind the tree, she peeks her head over only to see Ubica staring blankly into space.

(This is a good time for me to head back) she thinks to herself and starts walking back to the circle of sleeping royals.

All the while Trojia is rewinding the conversation she had just overheard in her head, her heart is beating wildly at Ubica’s determination to protect her at all costs when she thinks of the words ‘instincts’.

She couldn’t help but ask herself what her own instincts were.

Stopping the walk in her tracks it hits her, just like Ubica, the reason for these instincts are unclear but certain.

Trojia’s legs are moving rather quickly now, however they are not moving in the direction of the campfire.

Thinking to herself with each step she comes to terms with what her instincts are saying.

“I want to know everything about him! Even if it's good or bad, I have to know!"

Trojia is breathing rather hard, she has run back to where Ubica is and they are both now staring at each other.

“Why are you here? You should really get your sleep you know.” he said, hiding his discomfort behind a fake smile.

Ignoring his words, Trojia walks closer to him and says, “Who would have thought that there really is such a thing as love at first sight.”

Ubica is completely dumbfounded by the suddenness of her statement; and before he can come up with the words to respond, he finds himself stuck in some sort of a trance as she reveals a smile that sets off a strange feeling in his chest.

Under the surreal lights of the night sky, Ubica can't help but feel that there is something different about this girl, she just might be the light for him to follow.

The End of Royalty: (END)

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