Ramon Thunderblade, the world’s hero, the love and also a little hate of the people, the treasure nobles fought over and the ‘pet’ the Lord Ruler believed he owned, found himself staring down at the city from atop the castle tower. He’d left a note for the maid in his bed, for he planned to leave in the dead of this night.
Ramon gazed at the beautiful full moon and then at the second red moon floating adjacent to it. This moon appeared on any night it felt like it, a celestial object potentially made up of mana, and served as a beacon of numerous tales and plays. Crimson Blood Moon.
However, Ramon wasn’t awake to observe a moon that meant nothing to him, aside from its legends tied to the world’s greatest threat, Ares the Peace Spawner. But the dream Ramon had… it had nothing to do with the Peace Spawner. In a kingdom of fire, perhaps the world, mad laughter poured from his own throat. He had no control of his will, for the magical binding worked from the inside out. As if he’d ingested something… Perhaps a spelled drink. Plenty of people tried that on him in the past, before they realized he could detect magic long before it entered his invisible protective shield. There was a reason why assassins failed. One couldn’t kill the hero without magic, after all.
But the dream. Ramon seemed to endlessly laugh as the people and the kingdom burned, unaware of the familiar presence next to him, until the voice of a strange man casually said to him, “Wake the hell up and be careful of what you drink, idiot.”
Could it have been… a messenger of Wanda? Ramon wasn’t going to pretend like he attended every sermon held by the church. He had direct access to its Pope, someone he naturally didn’t trust, but that was it.
With his bag in hand, storage ring full of his items, the young man came to a decision. He released the silent signal to his party, then headed for the meeting place, leaping rooftop to rooftop.
His loyal party, three women and two men, had the lightning horses ready. They looked eager to get away from the capital city. Sure, the Lord Ruler had summoned the party, urging them to stay for at least a year in order to get to know the people, but not a single person in Ramon’s party believed that nonsense. Hell, that ridiculous timeframe was likely a compromise with the princess. Ramon left a letter for the so-called king stating that he could sense the movements of Ares the Peace Spawner and hurried after him. He asked the Lord Ruler to keep his departure a secret, though he doubted the bastard would stay quiet. No one commanded him, after all.
Too bad Ramon planned to be long gone and he wouldn’t return, even if some dunderhead found a way to resurrect the Midnight Dragon.
Perhaps that was a cruel thought, but Ramon’s weariness of the nobility, their constant scrabbles, and the backstabbing political atmosphere finally broke him. It produced the dream, after all. Perhaps he allowed himself to undergo the spellbinding. Perhaps he allowed himself to do the unthinkable and attack the people that fawned over their hero.
“Where shall we go?” asked a woman with a soothing, borderline seductive voice. Of course, during the formation of the party, Ramon created an important rule designed to help minimize betrayal. No fraternization. They were brothers and sisters at war against the kingdom’s enemies. They could only marry outside the party. In fact, both of the men did. They had no trouble whatsoever finding beautiful wives. Neither of the women did. One he knew was somewhat of a holy nun of Wanda, their healer. She would not give up her purity until Ares the Peace Spawner was finally defeated. Which would probably be never.
Ramon never admitted it aloud, none of the party did, but Ares could probably wipe the floor with them. They had two options. Climb to the highest of the magician realms and become master magicians, or utilize the Seal of Wanda.
They were going with the seal of course, which required them all to work together, synchronize their spirits. But then they’d have to guard the seal and make sure none of Ares’s allies or worshippers freed him. Talk about a heavy, heavy, burden. A new kingdom would have to be erected around the spot they sealed him.
The woman with the seductive voice wasn’t the healer, of course, but their heavenly bow user. One of the most powerful members of their party.
He once had feelings for her a long time ago but tossed them to the side to respect his own fraternization rule. Without the party fighting over who bedded who, they never failed to accomplish their missions.
“For now, we set off to the east,” Ramon told her. “Maybe we’ll find answers there. At the very least, we’ll be as far away from the Lord Ruler and his dangerous daughter as possible.”
After all, the Lord Ruler’s daughter was in love with both Ramon Thunderblade and Ares the Peace Spawner. She had an awful attraction to strong, uncontrollable men. Perhaps it was a result of being extremely powerful herself.
