Pythium army simply walked across Ulm’s defenses. Pulverizing all that stood in their way with the sheer number of troops, Calvary, and superior magic. While the entire province was taken within few months, there were almost no Pythium casualties.
Celes knew that this would be just a beginning of a long and grueling warfare. An Age of Chaos.
People have said that it has been an age of chaos ever since the Pantocrator fell. Celes knew better. When true Age of Chaos dawned upon this earth, the bloodshed was too much for words to describe. Celes sighed. Now, world was nearly on flames, and he had also caused his share of devastation. Celes also knew how this would end. Countless dead and the dying lay upon the plains, dying it red. He had seen it happen before the Pantocrator’s domination. He had seen it happen now.
His fragment in Pythium gave him a report on what happened in the capital. This part of becoming a pretender always bored him. All those calculations…
At least your minions do most of the work for you, oh evil overlord. The fragment’s thoughts poured into his mind. Celes grimaced. His fragments were doing that a lot these days. He blamed Arshnoc eyebook. He knew it had cursed him when he tore up a few pages to make another origami hydra…
But that didn’t really concern him now; he had sensed a birth of someone. Something. He wasn’t really sure if it was really human. He had to investigate. Moments later, Celes’s form was gone. And a green bird fluttered away.
….
He found it at a place particularly charged with magic. Inside a small hut was a newborn child. Bustling with energy while somehow retaining an unusual glow of wisdom. ‘So much potential in that child,” Celes thought.
“My lord, is there something…” the parent of the child asked.
“Keep this one safe. Let no one find out that I was ever here. I shall come back for this boy later.”
…
5 years later.
I am Battle Vestal Gaius Famulius, and I write this thing to whomever it may concern. Although I was the least worthy, Celes gave me his trust. And that is how I have came to know. And to understand all things that have happened at province of Dacia.
The Ulm army finally regrouped and made an attack against Dacia. Pythium army was ready for it. Like swarms of locusts crashing against fire, they fell. This was the time when Celes reappeared at the village to recover the boy.
We found him on the hill. Playing a local game called King of the Hill. The boy was the king, pushing aside all who dared climb the hill and challenge him. Already this boy seemed like a prime candidate for the Emerald Guards. But that was not why Celes was here.
“Is that the boy?” Diana, the sorceress asked. I do not know why Celes chose to bring her along. Always so insolent. She even stuck out her tongue against our god. But here she was.
“That is.” Celes responded and immediately called to summon him. When the boy arrived, he was obviously more concerned with the game than with the God. I was only stopped from reprimanding the boy by a cold glare from Diana. But from what happened afterwards, that may have been the reason why Celes chose to bring her along.
Celes showed him a single platinum coin of great value. The boy was suddenly transfixed by it. “This is a coin, on one side is a symbol of a giant snake ascending into the sky. On the other, there is a head. You can have this coin if you can call the right side that this coin will fall in.” He tossed the coin into the air.
The boy caught it mid air. “Heads,” the boy said. I discovered that it was indeed, a head, when he opened his palm. The boy immediately left to play the game again with his own folks. Leaving Diana and I bewildered. Celes, as he was a God, merely smiled.
“What is that boy?” Diana asked.
“That boy,” Celes said. “Shall be the sword and the protector of Pythium and all its subjects.”