"..."
Aegis stood there, frozen for a couple of seconds before taking a deep sigh. He took some time digesting the information.
'Suryavya mentioned that 300 years have passed since I perished. How long has he been dead?'
'Was his demise before I perished or after? I should have known if it was before; it's likely only after I perished... How is he still able to communicate with me? Well, he is a god he must have his Ways...'
'The entire central continent and Cuckos archipelago had already become devout believers of The Lord of Light.' He said inwardly.
'Perhaps the empire has gone back to its old ways, where the worship of evil gods was more prevalent.'
Faith doesn't mean loyalty after all.
He thought deeply for a couple of seconds. Suryavya was a god who had lived for who knows how many eras. It's not easy to kill a god; his demise only shows the strength of the abyss. Aegis silently vowed to honor the God by fighting the Abyss.
He subconsciously took his hands towards his left eyeball; it had been destroyed by the beam of life and recreated by Suryavya. He had already figured out that it was related to the Red Order, yet he didn't know how. He knew there were people who possessed supernatural powers; he knew he was given them by the Lord of Light, yet his amnesia didn't do him favors.
"It's almost sunset; I should herd these sheep back into the pen. At this moment the shepherd Alicent Gregis lives, and Aegis Bernard Leos III has long perished..." Alicent said as he began herding the sheep into the pen, although the emperor never herded sheep, the remnants of the shepherd still lingered.
...
Near the plains, there was a large barn where yaks, mountain goats, and sheep were kept. In the large pen, several hundred sheep resided. North of the Mountains of Giants, it never rained, nor was it particularly harsh for the sheep, so they were kept outside.
"Done herding the sheep?" A voice asked the teen, and he looked at the source of the voice. It was the man who raised Alicent, his father, Anthony Gregis. Aegis recognized the man from Alicent's remnant memories.
"Uhh... I'm almost done, sir." He replied, unfamiliar with how to respond. A noble's tongue was quite different from a commoner's; thankfully, Aegis knew the Ard language, a language spoken north of the mountains of the giants, through his second wife, Kaitlyn.
She was the prettiest woman he laid eyes on, and although she died when he was in his 40s, almost 20 years later Aegis still remembered her warm smile and her gentle voice.
She perished just south of the mountain on the Giant's Fort, a castle that guarded the sacred sanction of the giants. As the direct descendant of the giants, Aegis was its protector, and he did protect it, yet his wife took an arrow to her heart.
"You'd better get to work then... Dinner's stew." Anthony said as he walked away. Alicent's gaze landed on his back that was illuminated by the orange evening sunset. He sighed as he got back to work.
He quickly closed the sheep pen and poured water from the trough into the feeding tub.
Soon he went to eat dinner. They sat cross-legged; there were no fancy tables or cutlery. Although he dislikes the taste of the stew, it still felt homemade. It had a certain sense of warmth to it which was separate from the heat.
'This reminds me of the meals Mother made me sometimes; perhaps she wanted me to experience the warmth of a homemade meal. She grew up as a commoner as well'. Aegis said as he slowly lifted the wooden spoon.
"You seem to like it more than usual."
Aegis felt startled; he spilled a bit of soup from his spoon onto the floor. He wiped it off with a rag nearby.
"I was more tired than usual."
"I saw you dozing off near the tree today; you'll get fat if all you do is eat and sleep." Antony said as he finished his stew and scraped the sides off with the spoon.
"I just took a nap, that's all."
"I will be herding the sheep tomorrow. You will go and deliver a letter to my friend in the city tomorrow." Anthony said as he stood up and went outside to clean the broom and spoon.
"Okay." Alicent replied. The city was Grunard; Alicent had already figured it out through the remnant memories of the previous Alicent and Aegis. It was a beautiful city, as far as he remembered, with large walls and a magnificent castle in the center.
It was also called the city of the Giant Smiths because of its blacksmiths and craftsmen. Aegis slew its king, the dwarven giant Albeard, with his own hands through decapitation.
The next morning came quickly, and Alicent got dressed in decent clothes.
"Here, Take this sword with you; although Those Guns are dangerous you still need a way to defend yourself." Antony handed him a short sword.
"Guns?" Alicent asked, confused; he hadn't heard of such things in both of his lives.
"I guess you wouldn't know much if you haven't gone out that much. They are like cannons, but they shoot smaller cannonballs through a hand-sized barrel." Antony told him, and Alicent nodded.
'Handheld cannons? Absolutely absurd—would a person's hand be able to handle it? Perhaps it's just a myth...'
"I hope you take good care of this letter. We are selling 20 of our sheep to the city."
Alicent nodded and quickly walked off after getting warned about some robbers near the woods. He made a mental note to avoid the roads through the forest.
He got on the horse, Betsy. She was a 3-year-old horse that was the cheapest one could buy. He soon rode Betsy along the roads till he arrived at the main highway of the north.
"Arden II Highway"
He didn't quite know who this Arden fellow was, perhaps a king of the north, perhaps the current emperor of the empire. Considering Alicent had never ventured out of his father's farm he never knew much.
'I need to find out what has happened within the past 300 years. there used to be a newspaper system in the north. Is there still one now?' Alicent wondered as she rode the horse through the stone-paved highway.
About 30 minutes later he saw the walled city that was Grunard. The walls spanned far and wide; they were more than 50 meters tall.
A pulse travelled through his nerves, as if some changes had been made to them. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his jaw sprung open; his body convulsed slightly for a second before going back to normal.
An army of giants appeared, emerging from the ground before Alicent, their bodies bathed in black tar. they were all tall, taller than 30 meters. They all ran towards the city with their backs turned towards him. The earth shook violently under the Giant's stomping.
Their footsteps left behind large imprints from which the black tar emerged and filled, and from there, even more giants appeared and ran towards the city with their backs turned.
"In my name as the Emperor Supreme, The Lord of Valion and the Kingdom of Light..."
He muttered under his breath, his visage turned to that of a man in his 40s, his beard was black, and his hair was greying. he wore golden battle armor and a large cape over his back that fluttered in the wind. It had a symbol of only a white cross that was stained in blood; the snake that wrapped it was nowhere to be found.
His left eye glowed with a dim hue, and the cape he wore on his back fluttered even more as a translucent liquid wrapped around his body. His legs lifted up, and his body floated in the sky. he spread his arms as if he was hugging the sun.
He closed his eyes and muttered.
"I summon Auram, The First Giant..."
From the soil, the abyss leaked out and spread out like a puddle; from it, a single hand with each finger larger than a human came out.
His vision blurred out as the scene from his memories overlapped with the real world. There he stood on the horse, sweat drenching him and his hands shaking, his left iris pulsed slightly before going back to normal.
"..."
'Is this the reason why I have amnesia? Has my mind blocked the horrifying memories... Was I someone capable of summoning such terrifying creatures? ..
The symbol I wore clearly had a blood-stained cross instead of a cross with a twirling snake. is that the symbol of the original Red Order? And the one that came later assassinated me and the Lord of Light'?
He was intrigued, but with the goal of delivering the letter completed, he will return to the farm afterwards. He looked down slightly before his gloomy expression gradually subsided.
"The city of the dwarves and the giants... It's been a long time." He muttered to himself as his horse slowly walked towards the gates.
He looked towards the side of the gate, in the little guard outpost. usually only two people sat there, and there were knights standing there as well. they wore the red cross with the twirling snake.
''..."
'So my theory, in fact, was correct... they aren't looking for me, are they? Unless I had previously created a commotion, they shouldn't be informed about my revival'.
There were a few guards stationed just a few meters ahead of Alicent; they all held spheres pointed towards the sky.
'Has something happened recently? At most two or three guards should be guarding the gates...'
The gates were open, and the guards weren't hindering the other passersby. One of the guards looked at Alicent and looked at the guard next to him before he nodded at his partner.
"Wait, traveler." One of the guards said as he put a hand on the saddle. Alicent gently tugged the rope and stopped the horse.
"Yes, mister?" Alicent answered with a questioning tone as if he was asking, "Why have you decided to stop me?"
"We are ordered to capture a blasphemer. Black hair, blue eyes, and slightly tanned skin—I think you match that description well."