CHAPTER 1
A new chapter, stained by the horror of that night, began for the young Sorayael Elaris.
Two small figures adrift in a broken world, the siblings wandered through vacant streets and abandoned towns, and their weary journey finally leading them to the Capital.
The place that unfolded before their young eyes was a grim panorama of destruction, punctuated by the disturbing quiet of the unmoving dead.
Sorayael looked to her little brother that she was piggybacking.
Sorayael bites her lower lip, pitying the situation of them.
A quick scan of the ravaged surroundings revealed the bizarre sight of abandoned fruits and bread, untouched amidst the chaos left by the Solarian attack.
A flicker of confusion crossed Sorayael's young face, quickly replaced by a desperate need.
With a swift decision, she gathered the food into her small hands and darted away, her young mind focused solely on getting to safety without pausing.
They settled in an alley for a while, hiding from the Magician's attack. The war is still ongoing. The sight of the magicians and swordsmen fighting for their own life are still vivid on Sora's mind.
Sora spotted a tattered flag, it was a flag of the famous guild in the Capital. She took it and made it their blanket. Krios immediately went to sleep because of exhaustion.
Sora was sleepy but tried to keep her eyes open, keeping her guard on. She ate the other bread she gave to her little brother.
The bread fell down from the grip of Sorayael's hands. She didn't try to look. Her instincts are telling her to get away from that person immediately.
Her hands immediately grab her little brother and run as fast as she can.
'please.. someone.. please..!' Sora's mind.
'Aethelgard's soldier!'
'Why? Why does it have to be me?'
Sora's mind was full of negativity.
Sorayael's eyes were focused on her little brother, trying to think of what she could do to save her little brother.
Sorayael was confused because of the answer she got.
'But mom doesn't have any friends, anong pinagsasasabi nito?'
Sora were trying to figure out a plan to save her little brother while trying to discover what the man meant.
The world fell into silence.
Sorayael's heartbeat thundered in her chest, yet she heard nothing but the horrifying sound of the blade cutting through flesh. The scene burned into her memory.
Hatred boiled in Sorayael's veins. She looked up, her tears turning to fury. Every part of her ached to destroy the man standing before her.
Then an ancient force woke from its long slumber deep within her.
It is an ancient force, long dormant, unfurled from the marrow of her soul.
It crackled through her veins like starlit fire, quiet yet overwhelming, sacred and absolute.
The air around her shimmered, as though the universe itself was holding its breath..
'Judicium Arcanum' she suddenly thought as if someone is whispering to her.
She didn't know what that word was but all she knew is that it was a word for this man to die.
A torrent of memories surged into Sorayael's mind, it is violent and jarring. They were fragments of the man's past, distorted and drenched in malice. Among the shadows, she saw glimpses of her mother... and him.
Her mother had once treated this man like a brother yet behind that trust, he craved her power.
His greed had driven him to betray her. Some of the memories remained blurry, scattered like fragments across a shattered mirror due to Sorayael's insufficient power to fully uncover them.
And though the past was fragmented, she is certain that this man was never her mother's friend.
His name echoed from the depths of those recollections.
She turned toward her brother's dead body, heart hammering with grief. Suddenly, something came up, it's a foreign memory, or perhaps an instinctual whisper from a deeper place. A spell surfaced in her thoughts, etched in light across her mind.
She didn't know why she knew it. But her soul urged her to speak it.
"Vitae Reditus."
Glowing runes bloomed around them, encircling them in a radiant ring of light. A spectral thread unfurled from Sorayael's chest to her brother's, binding them together. Above them, divine light spiraled, dancing like a soul on the verge of rebirth.
Her brother alive once more.
But Sorayael collapsed, the spell having drained her to the edge of consciousness.
They were like that at the moment until someone noticed them and took them somewhere.
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- False memories shatter like glass under this spell, revealing hidden truths.
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