Oath Kingdom - Check

“Iris, close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you to. All would be over soon.”

A kind voice resounded in Iris’s ears as she hugged her knees in the corner of her now burnt-down office, but no matter how long she kept her eyes closed, there was no voice telling her she could open them again.

There was no voice telling her it was over. No voice telling her it was alright now.

Her mind slowly drifted to how her current problems began. That young boy that stepped into her office, showing her something she was always curious about. Destruction energy.

She remembered his eyes that only contained a playful innocence, but then, those eyes changed into something she couldn’t even describe. Something she had no knowledge or understanding about.

The images of destruction she saw in those eyes, the pure disregard for anything that means existence. A void of feelings, emotions, life, and death. The sense of her entire existence being denied in front of her eyes, absorbed by the unending destruction.

Iris shuddered, her own body warmth leaving her, pushing her to revolve her source in an effort to remove that coldness that once more engulfed her soul; then, a whole new image of a pair of crimson and unfeeling eyes appeared in her mind.

“How can I hope to fight them if I don’t even know what I’m fighting…” muttered Iris, a feeling of weakness and hopelessness she had lived centuries without grasping her heart once again.

“I’m sorry, Aidan, I’m so sorry. I have failed again. I- I am still weak.”, her mind seeking solace in remembrance of the kind and always smiling Aidan as she kept mumbling incoherently.

A new period of unrest ensued in the kingdom of Oath, with both their king and protector disappearing from sight. An entire month went on like this, a time in which people kept dying senselessly, but just as the unrest reached its peak, the murders suddenly stopped.

The people didn’t know what had happened, but the nobles started spreading the news that the king had finally dealt with the threat, restoring some peace of mind to the panicking population.

The sole perpetrator of those murders, Xendar, was sitting in Necros’ office, scanning some official documents in front of him.

Necros walked out of the ground and fell to his knees.

“The situation in the capital is slowly stabilizing. The underground guilds are watching the paths leaving in and out of the city, killing everyone that shows a single sign of being a spy.”

The people relieved that the murders had stopped had no idea that they were still going on, just that their location moved outside the capital and happened a lot more stealthy.

Since Elise didn’t want the city to crumble, she stopped the city murders and started targeting the people leaving or coming to the capital.

“Good job. Keep at it.”, said Xendar in an emotionless voice before bringing his eyes back to the papers in front of him.

Time passed, and another month ended, but Iris and the King still didn’t appear in public again.

The academy knew clearly that Iris was in her office. Since Maya, Seth and Hollie had suddenly disappeared two months ago, and Iris spent all her time in her office, talks had started spreading throughout the teacher and student bodies. Talks about Seth, Hollie, and Maya leaving together and deserting the kingdom.

With Iris too busy sulking in her office to stop the rumors, they soon got out of control. They started extending even outside the academy, attracting the attention of the underground guilds.

“How long is she going to brood for?” an obviously angry Elise slammed her fist on her office after reading the rapport Necros had just brought her.

“The King is an idiot, and their protector is a little baby. Do I really have to keep everything running myself?”

Not finding a target for her rage and indignation, Elise’s body got covered by a bloody mist, and she sent a wraith toward the academy.

When she entered Iris’s office, she found Iris sitting in a corner, holding her knees and mumbling incoherently. Seeing Iris was not reacting to her presence, she created a blood knife and threw it at her thigh.

A small flame engulfed the knife before it could hit true, and it was gone without a trace a moment later. Elise thought her attack might have woken Iris up, but once she looked into her eyes, she found the same lost look she originally had. Even the incoherent mumbling was still there.

“What was that?” muttered Elise as she formed another knife and sent it to hit Iris, but the same thing repeated. Not able to understand what was happening, she walked close to Iris and moved her hand to touch her face. Since she was there using a wraith, she didn’t fear getting injured.

This time, no flame appeared, and she could easily touch Iris’s face.

“What is this power? She’s clearly out of it.” Wondered Elise as she moved her hand to grasp Iris’s neck. She grabbed her and squeezed on her neck with nothing happening.

Iris’s face turned bright purple, and even her legs spasmed, but the flame didn’t activate again. Just as Elise was about to stop, afraid of strangling her to death, Iris’s eyes snapped back into focus and a wave of fire burnt away the hand holding her neck.

Iris’s eyes were teary and sad as she looked up at the one-handed Elise. The sizzling sound from her burnt arm didn’t seem to faze Elise as she said: “Did you finally wake up?”

Iris lowered her head, avoiding eye contact as she asked: “What do you want?”

“Both your kingdom and academy are slowly falling apart while neither you nor that king does anything to stop it. Aren’t you tired of just sulking in here, begging for pity while not allowing anyone to give it to you?”

Elise’s words made Iris look back, a trace of anger and hopelessness on her face as she yelled: “And what do you want me to do? Protect the kingdom just so that Seth can come and take it for his own? What purpose would that serve? I have failed. Just let it all go away… I don’t care about anything anymore.”

“Oh, really? You don’t? Then why are you mopping around like a child? If you truly didn’t care, you would have long left. I don’t know who you’re trying to convince to buy into your lie, yourself or me, but you better get your head out of your ass and work with the king to pacify the people.”

“I can keep the kingdom safe from spies and whatnot, but my word weighs nothing with the people.”

Iris lowered her head again, refusing to say anything back, causing Elise’s mouth to twitch in anger.

Seeing her words were just hitting a rigid wall, she snapped: “You dumb idiot, if you want to really protect that fucking king and his family, just grow stronger to do it. If you want to fight Seth, just get stronger and do it. What purpose does sitting here, locked in this office, has?”

Iris also snapped back: “How can I fight him? I don’t even know how I lost. I don’t know how I lost to you either, so how could I ever hope to fight any of you freaks?”

“Just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean it’s hopeless. Have you ever tried to figure out why you couldn’t fight us? No, you just decided it’s impossible and locked yourself in here. Do you want to know the truth? I am so weak you could probably kill me with but a thought. I’m sure that Seth’s strength is also not that great since he was just at the third shell.”

“That’s what separated us from the fool protector of the Oath Kingdom. We sometimes use our brains as well, not only our fists.”

Having said her piece, Elise went away, afraid Iris’s stupidity would also latch on her.

Left alone in her office once more, Iris lowered her head, processing Elise’s words. She slowly went through everything that had happened, her argument with Seth, her fights with Elise, and realized that it was never a real fight.

Seth did something to scare her away, thinking about what had happened back then still making her get goosebumps, while Elise seemed to have a way of never dying, but she was never that strong when attacking either.

“I am so weak that you could probably kill me with but a thought…” Elise’s words sounded in her ear again, and a crazy idea came to her.

“Is that not her, but some sort of illusion?” the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. She had no idea what type of energy could create illusions, but this seemed the most logical conclusion.

“But that’s not right either. My energy clearly hit something…” mumbled Iris as she remembered the sizzling sound when she burnt away Elise’s arm.

She had burnt enough humans to know the sound and smell that followed, but none of them seemed right. Sniffling twice, she seemed to find the smell familiar, and then, her eyes widened with a realization: “Blood.”

Sitting up, she rushed out of her building through the window, flying straight into the air and overlooking the capital. Her wind energy spread all around the city in the next moment.

Closing her eyes, she took in all the noise around her. She slowly tuned out everything irrelevant, focusing on what she was looking for. Eventually, her ears caught the sound of a familiar breathing rhythm, and her eyes snapped open.

Not caring about the people pointing their fingers toward her, Iris dived down, encasing her body into a bright flame. She created a vast hole straight in the center of the middle ground and dove down into a simple room at the end of a series of tunnels.

There, Necros and Elise were sitting down, apparently waiting for something. Iris had a triumphant smile on her lips, enjoying the feeling of power she had long forgotten, but the smiling expression on Elise’s face didn’t fade away even with her weakness exposed.

“What are you smiling about? I finally found you.”

Elise shook her head, red vapors swirling around her as she asked: “So what? Do you think my decisions are as impulsive as yours?”

Iris had a bad premonition, and suddenly a thought popped into her head. “The king.”

“See? It was not that hard. A large part of his blood is already under my control. Even if you could kill me before I could do the same to the king, the blood would evaporate with my death, spelling the end of your beloved king.”

Iris took a step back, Elise’s words making her realize she was in the same situation as before.

Elise approached her carelessly, her face closing up until it was only a few inches away from Iris’s as she said: “Your move, Protector.”

Iris took another step back, away from Elise’s smiling face, finding herself at a loss of what she could do now, but Elise didn’t give her time to think too deeply as she also moved back and took a seat next to Necros.

“Go back up and calm down the nervous population. Your earlier display of stupidity only made everyone more anxious.”

Iris clenched her fists and flew back out of the hole she had just made, her body trembling with anger. She finally understood what a fierce opponent Ghost was.

Elise’s smile disappeared once Iris was gone, and she turned towards Necros. “That brat is really too reckless. I need you to continue hunting down spies while also having some of your people work with her and the king to calm down the population. I’ll be leaving the city for a while.”

Iris flew straight towards the castle and started making a plan with the king to calm down the people. Even if she hated Elise, Iris also knew that she was right. Before finding a way to deal with both Ghost and Seth, she had to make sure Aidan’s kingdom still remained.

After a lot of back and forth, the two devised a plan. They made a public appearance, assuring the people that everything had been part of a secret operation to eliminate enemy spies from the kingdom.

They also explained the disappearance of Seth, Maya, and the other ascended as they had been sent on a critical mission and refused to comment further. The people were still somewhat restless, only half-believing everything, but there was nothing they could do besides voicing their worries to each other.

The return of Iris to the academy and her starting to resume her routine before Seth’s disappearance also let the gossip slowly die down.

The situation in the kingdom started to fall back in place over the next few weeks, but unknown to Iris or the king, a new wave was slowly making its way toward the kingdom from a small town in the far south.