Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 3: The start of it all (2)

The Kingdom was unprepared for such a large scale invasion

The news of the slaughter reached the nobles and Kings quickly, and in a desperate attempt to gather a defense they united, for the first time in five hundred years, to form the Coalition Army.

Vangua, Seren, Cori and other kingdoms joined the Coalition

Arial joined the army as soon as he heard they were recruiting still holding onto the gift he had bought.

He knew he wasn't strong like the offspring of the nobles who trained in martial arts since they were young, but he was a talented tracker he had learned the skill during his teenage years, from the adventurers and travelers who had visited the village, and he rapidly gained a reputation among the soldiers.

Arial duties as tracker are simple: hide their tracks, recognize the enemy's.

He had to find the most optimum path for the army, scout the enemies and make sure the information is relayed quickly

But eventually more skilled trackers came, sons of Kings and nobles, and he was demoted to a foot soldier.

Arial was not shaken by it, and obeyed every order given to him like a good soldier. Desire to avenge his parents and destroy the Demon Race was his only ambition.

That was the reason he enlists and the reason he wields his sword.

Years and years he fought

Six long years passed with no hope of winning the war.

Soldiers Arial had befriended were lost to the hands of the Demon Race one after the other. Every meeting is ephemeral, short and meaningless.

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The more he cares, the more he got hurt. He has no tears left to mourn and to grieve the people he knows

After that he kept his distance from people. With no family, no friends, no lovers, all Arial could see was desperation.

And probably because of that he recognizes the thing that humans could not recognize.

The Humans were doomed. That is the truth. There is no salvation. There is no Avenging Angels that will come down from the Light Above and help them

Even after putting together the Coalition Army the Kingdom's nobles still quarreled like petty children, driven by their thirst for minor glories.

They all thought they could win this. What arrogance!

The Coalition Army had won its share of battles of course, but Arial knew none of it would matter in the end.

He remembered the stories that his father used to told him during those long winter nights

The stories his father had told him were just stories. Stories of Old Heroes, story of Great men, and Great Kings and Great Heroes.

There are no great heroes to fight these evil nor there are great kings that helps the people suffering.

And that fills him with sadness.

There were no great heroes, just bumbling idiots bickering over titles and pride.

Idiots all of them! There is another point of debate among the people of the Human Continent when the Dark Lands first invaded

What prompted Azrael, The Dark Prince to invade the Human Continent?

No one knows for sure

Arial was stationed at Zettel Kingdom, preparing to advance the next morning to the city of Zidar, where they would engage in battle with the Orchish division of the Demon Race army and their commander, Gruk Vor.

The new recruits were choosing their weapons, checking their equipment, and saying their prayers to whichever god they believed in.

Some pray to the Water Maiden and some pray to the Dawn Mother.

Pray all you like, thought Arial bitterly, you're all going to die tomorrow. They were outnumbered three to one.

The war could not be won. Any chance of victory faded a long time ago.

Six years in the army and seeing so many promising young man, to die horrible deaths in a meaningless war can turn any brave man craven.

Arial's cunning mind was the only thing that had kept him alive.

During the inevitable battles he had always found ways of being stationed in the back; when the frontline fell, he either hid himself among the dead or ran.

He had hidden his tracks with such expertise that he had never been caught, but now his plans had changed.

For three years he had been researching old maps and had discovered the sewage system leading to the Vern Empire.

He had not truly understood how to read but he could understand drawings.

Arial's plan was simple: that night, whilst the others were eating, he would sneak down to the sewers and escape.

He coughed and his flashback ended. The smell is hard to get used to.

He walks now. In the sewer that smell like death and darkness behind him with a torch as he walks forward.

Determined, Arial went over and over his plan in his head. I will survive. That is his determination as he keeps taking that step forward

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