《Heir of Wilberforce》Prologue: Book-sword
Advertisement
Second World
The year 16 After Descent (AD)
The sound of gallops rang in the air as three riders sped across a mountain range. The riders rode side-by-side: with the central rider observing the front, the left rider observing the back and the rider on the right observing the sides.
The rider on the left looked over his shoulder for the third time. He shook his head dejectedly. "They are close, Commander. They'll catch up in a couple hours." He said.
"I'm going to use that technique!" The middle rider, addressed as Commander, said.
There was an abrupt halting of the two horses riding by his side, mainly as a response to his answer. And the greenish-brown eyes of the rider on the right and the sword-shape iris in the eyes of the rider on the left fixed on him, "t... that technique.... Commander, is there no other way?" They asked, further widening their gaze in utter surprise.
"What I need is time, at least eleven hours." His face was solemn as he further confirmed his stance. "Can you watch for eleven hours." A hint of uncertainty could be picked in his voice, as if he was contemplating something.
As for the two, seeing their leader was dead set, they nodded in complete approval, "yes, commander!"
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a stony cave attached to the base of a thousand-feet tall mountain. Its edges were covered by yellowish mushrooms and its entrance lined by a thick cobweb.
They had been targeting this cave ever since the Commander decided to use 'that technique'. They climbed down their horses and the Commander, his eyes closed, walked to the feet long entrance of the cave. He seemed to well know of the environment as if his eyes were open. He stood before the entrance, observing something in the darkness of the cave.
After a short while, he turned back to his two companions, "This will do!" He said, bending down to cut through the cobweb into the small passage. But just as he was about to enter, he turned back again, and with his eyes closed, expressed a warm smile to them. They instantly bowed, understanding what he just did as a goodbye. And before they looked up, he was gone.
As he disappeared into the cave, they stood watch, their body language signifying their unwavering resolve: never to move from their spots even after death.
Three hours later, a black void suddenly appeared in the air and another set of three people appeared. Even the appearance of this people didn't faze the two people guarding the entrance.
Advertisement
As soon as these people arrived, the temperature markedly fell. Waves of a frigid energy spread out.
Even though, the clothes of this people appeared black, they were not, in fact, the only black in them was the most conspicuous thing in them - their eyes!
Their eyes, something you could not miss even if you saw it on the verge of death, was a perfectly fitting black color. As black as a skillet. Both the sclera and the iris were black. Indeed, someone from a distance would most likely mistake it for a black hole.
These eyes were called Urúrú.
After a minute, the whole area around the stony cave turned from misty to night dark. The same black eyes that made the robes of these newcomers to appear black, even though they weren't, had also turned the surroundings dark.
The darkness in those eyes was so much so that if you looked at them for an extended period, you would feel as if you would be drawn inside them and be lost forever.
For a complete two to three minutes after the three had arrived, not even a word was said between the two parties. And just when it seemed they would not say anything, the tallest among the three, who was almost four meters tall, cast a meaningful look at the person standing to his left. "Uznu Urúrú," He said, "you should get enlightenment during this encounter."
Uznu Urúrú nodded. "Yes, Wraith."
The Wraith then turned to face the two standing in front of the cave. "It has been ten years already, I'm interested in knowing what made you stop," he stopped and looked at the two warriors guarding the entrance. It was only when it became clear he wasn't going to get any answer that he continued. "I thought you have become acquainted with living as fugitives... alas! My job is to find and exterminate you."
With that, the black-eyed men, made complex hand gestures at the same time and in the same manner. Immediately after, their black eyes began to emit a dark glow, and then seconds later, six straight lines of black light, one from each of their eyes propagated toward the two warriors in front of the cave.
The one with the greenish-brown eyes, made a hand gesture, instantly synthesizing over one-thousand balls of flames the color of his eyes. He made another hand gesture and the thousand flame balls roared and revolved around him.
The other made a hand gesture and, surprisingly, a two-meter sword came out from each of his sclera. The swords appeared as bodiless figures before they solidified into real swords, the same shape as his iris. As he held the two swords, one in each hand, he jumped into air and blocked all the incoming rays of black light.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, his companion moved to the side and launched his fire balls to the black-eyed men.
The Wraith changed the course of his attack to block the fire balls.
A terrifying blast first coalesced at the point of collisions, before it suddenly exploded. Spreading a unique destructive force that instantly encompassed everything in sight. Within a second, this blast had destroyed enough landscape of the misty mountains to make it unrecognizable. There was no longer any mountain range, everything had just become a mixture of rubbles and dusts from the blasted giant mountains.
Several minutes later when the explosion settled, the misty mountain range appeared flat, as if it had never even existed. The only thing remaining, was that single cave. All the giant trees, all the beasts and all the mists had been cleared by just a single encounter.
And in front of this last standing cave, the three members of the Urúrú faced the two mysterious warriors. None of them seemed to be harmed in the slightest. Apparently, all that collision that levelled the mountain range was just a warm up for them.
Uznu Urúrú's heart skipped several beats as he peeked at the status of their opponents.
The one with the greenish eyes:
Level : ??
Negrinki : ??
Djinn : Fire
Sword Technique : ??
Spell book : ??
The one with the sword-shape iris was even more impressive:
Level : ???
Negrinki : ???
Djinn : ???
Sword Technique : ???
Spell book : ???
Uznu Urúrú knew from his elementary classes that once you read '?', then the difference between your level and your opponent's was more than a double. If there were two question marks, then the difference was at least three times. If there were more than two question marks...
But how comes? How powerful can they be? He couldn't help but ask himself as he sweat and prepared to die.
The two warriors continued to launch similar but increasingly powerful attacks as they defended the cave against the Wraiths.
And the battle continued.
After the battle, the whole mountain range and the densely populated wild life was turned into nothing more than a leveled land. No animal was found there again, in fact, not even birds could fly over the place, and the place became a major part of the Danger Zone.
But something escaped the attention of many: a person who was there at the battle, the one called Uznu Ururu, had survived the battle and had crawled his way back to the palace of the Second World.
It was said for many months he could do nothing, not even speak. And it was only after a year that he regained his abilities. He entered a secluded meditation after that. Nobody heard from him again.
However, just before he went into seclusion, he narrated a shocking story to the king of the Second World, King Dul Urúrú. The story of a mysterious sword, that was left behind by the man that had entered the stony cave.
According to Uznu Urúrú, no matter how he tried to claim the sword he couldn't, it was just impossible in a way that was unexplainable.
As he narrated to the King, "But I was persistent milord, even with the injuries I have sustained, I didn't let it out of my sight for three days and three nights.
"But then on the fourth day, the sword glowed, and before I could do anything, it had turned into... a book, the size of a hand.
"The book then flipped its pages, as if it was showing something to me (or to the world). But all I saw were bizarre characters written in blood!
"And also an incomprehensible noise that made me think I was hallucinating, or more appropriately, I was listening to summonings from the afterlife. But it all lasted only a few seconds and before I know it..." he looked even more absentminded than ever, looking at the floor with a blank expression. He remained in this state for many seconds as if trying to comprehend his next words. And then he stammered, "It... d... disappeared!"
Somehow someway, word of the Book spread, and with time, the seekers of this Book multiplied. Within a few centuries, many would sacrifice anything and everything in order to lay hands on it. They didn't know which one was better: a Book or a Sword. So they came to call it Book-Sword.
Years passed. A new era came but the people never forget the mysterious Book-sword.
Advertisement
- In Serial1252 Chapters
Renewal and Rebirth
[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Interstellar travel. Life extension medicines. Advanced AI's All of these meant nothing to Jayden, she had been born too soon, her body unable to process the new technology. She was approaching the end of her life and had a choice to make. Deep Dive VR had progressed and real digitization and uploading was now an option for those unable to use life-extension treatments. For all the science the Human race had developed, Jayden was forced to take a different path. She would be digitized and explore a new world. One where cultivation and dinosaurs blended together. [Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For those unfamiliar with my writing style, Second Chances was my first attempt at writing. I'm not sure how much I learned in the process, except that readers get angry when you mess with characters they like! Warnings - I tend to info dump. I know I do this, I like slice of life novels that take time to unfold. So don't expect action, murder, and battles in every chapter, it isn't going to happen I prefer the first-person narrative. I will do an occasional POV shift, but it will never be done mid-chapter. I hope you enjoy the story, comments, ratings, and favorites are greatly appreciated!
8 295 - In Serial6 Chapters
The Last Light
Freed from his past, only to be shackled down by another fate. Jonathan Jameson was brought into a world of fantasy and magic to solve a murder. While not having the proper skill to do it, but the administration seems to have faith in him. He can’t really say no to it since it’s the only way he's going to get out anyway. A deal that will change him.
8 189 - In Serial28 Chapters
Ringmaster's Ambition
Samuel Tuckerman, a retired therapist and nearing a hundred years old, decided to let the whole world know of his legacy. To leave an everlasting mark in this world, he surrendered himself to the authorities and brought with him mountains of evidence to prove his unbelievable claims. That he was the cause of thousands of disappearances all over the world. These evidence consisted of journals, videotapes, papers, and audio recordings of the last moments of all his victims, or so he claims. Initially met with skepticism, the authorities only saw him as a senile old man until testing out the validity of one of the records led to the discovery of the remains of a person. Upon finding out the legitimacy of the evidence Samuel provided, he was swiftly arrested and all other evidence was distributed to law enforcement all over the world to verify. When news of his deeds was made known to the entire world, all eyes were on him. This revelation led to numerous controversies that the governments of the world had no way to control. It showed the incompetence of law enforcement and the government. It inspired lunatics to try and be more brazen in committing atrocities. It sowed fear among the masses. Fueled conspiracies of collusion with foreign governments to suppress information regarding this matter. All these problems eventually resulting in a one day trial, where he was immediately pronounced guilty and was sentenced to death by publicly-broadcasted hanging. Although the various authorities of the world sought to set Samuel's execution as an example, what was broadcasted in the screens all over the world was not the dying struggles of an evil monster, but the satisfied smile of an old man. With his life coming to an end, he shall soon discover that his sins will lead to even greater consequences.
8 148 - In Serial11 Chapters
Ephemeral Shards
Since the beginning of time, individuals have always wondered, ‘Is there any life out there, above the stars?’ Instead, they should be thinking, ‘Is there anything down there, beneath us?’ The Drow are unruly, excessively violent and cunning race when compared to their elvish surface cousins. They are one of the reigning established races within the Underworld. Yet there is always something bigger, slumbering away, buried within deep shadows, waiting to be awakened. Synthia, a young naive Drow has it all - talent as a thief, a position within a high-class crew and the ability to act as graceful as a noble. The Drow Empire is on the verge of collapse due to internal disputes. How do you save a race when they're very foundations are built on lies and deceit? How do you trust someone when odds are, they’ll stab you in the back. How do you survive the terrifying creatures of the Underworld, when you can’t even survive the creatures that live within your own mind? Cover Art belongs to the original artist.
8 215 - In Serial33 Chapters
The War Revealed - 3rd Novel in the Shadow Series
This is the third book in the Shadow Series. If you haven't yet, please read the first 2 books The Secret War and The Light. This is a continuation. Vai Ma'amaloa is 17 years old, and his father has just accepted the position of Chief Science Officer aboard the G.E.V. Shadow, a retrofitted warship tasked with exploring the unknown reaches of the galaxy. Now, Vai will have to come to terms with leaving his old life behind. As he forges new relationships aboard the Shadow, and tries to settle into his new life among its occupants, he will be confronted with dangers and mysteries he never imagined.
8 140 - In Serial31 Chapters
The Blood Queen
Vampires 🧛♂️🩸
8 231

