Reminiscence (MK)

[Tyr]

October 17
2880AD
Frankfurt Outskirts, Germany

For the past few weeks, the good Erebonian citizens of Kreuzen province had been terrorized by the stuff of legends. According to the rumors a massive beast had appeared around the area, with a few disappeared people and crushed abandoned barns to serve as proof. Perhaps some would dismiss these claims as nonsense, that dragons made out of ice did not exist and dismissed the eye witnesses as untrustworthy, that the disappeared people and destroyed buildings had some other explanation. But Robert Stoddheim had over his long life seen and experienced similar things before. The thing terrorizing Kreuzen wasn't a DRAGON far from home that had grown in the fanciful terror filled tales of the common people, but a genuine and very real cryptid.

And luckily for the helpless civilians whose worries had been dismissed so far, Robert had reason to hunt the cryptid. The appearance of such a cryptid was the final, conclusive proof that the Curse was rearing its ugly head once more. And that would bring with it a chance. A chance to find out what was causing the curse plaguing his nation and put it to the sword. But for that the old knight needed to be at his best. Which was where the cryptid he was hunting came in.

Perhaps where the hapless Erebonian patrols and skirmishing forces had failed the cryptid would succeed, at shaking the rust off of him that over a century of hiding had marked him with despite his efforts to avoid that.

"...Ah. Of course it would be here. Brings back memories doesn't it old friend?" Robert spoke to his eternal friend and companion from inside him. And he grinned as the sort of staticky noise came in reply that he knew to be El-Prado figuratively rolling his eyes.

"It's just the place where we met. There are no other memories in it for me."

And indeed, though the place looked completely different than what it had two centuries ago, with the trees being completely different and the opening a different size and the lack of a massive stone structure, it was unmistakably where the Stella Shrine had been. Where Robert Stoddheim had become the first and only awakener of the Auric Knight. Now the only hint that a shrine had ever been here was a small stone shrine.

And the pair could feel it in their bones that the cryptid would show up here, they only had to wait for it.

"But what a meeting it was! Do I need to refresh your memory on just how it went and what I had-"

"'-To endure to meet me' Yes, I know! I know because you've told this story close to a hundred times by now!" The Divine Knight's voice was something between desperate and resigned.

"Have I? Ah well, I'm old now, I'm allowed to indulge myself by telling the same old stories time and time again."

"You were old when we met. You were born old you cantankerous codger!"

"Well all the more reason to let me indulge on being old if I was never allowed to enjoy springtime of youth!" They were friends, honest. Friends that knew everything about one another, friends that had spent the last two centuries with one another. They were traditions more than injokes by now.

 

[MKR]

The playful banter was interrupted by a disturbance in the air. A sphere of purple energies coalesced into existence above the small shrine, such was always how these Cryptids appeared out of nowhere and to nowhere they returned. Perhaps they indeed had some commonality with the DRAGONs held at bay by Arzenal or perhaps some simply had similar appearances to prey on human fears. Nevertheless where previously there was nothing there now stood a giant now was manifest. Its very presence tainting the air with a foul taste.

​

The Cryptid Seah Unsurtr bellowed at the Auric Knight like a territorial beast. Frothing from its mouth was an icy mist one which surrounded its form and blew off it all the same. Two pairs of red eyes staring daggers at the native to this territory. It would no longer wait for any invitation to fight as the Cryptid brought down its claw upon the Divine Knight's frame in an effort to cave it in.

---

2680 AD +-
Stella Shrine, Outside Frankfurt

Thou who wouldst be an awakener

Here exists a fragment of the great power

If thou seekest to claim it, prove thy worth.
Commencing the final trial...
​

A completely white and grey environment, dimly cast against the fading backdrop some few purely black blades could be seen sporadically spread throughout the empty landscape. One shrouded with heavy overcast revealing neither sun, moor nor sky. This... Had not been where Robert was mere moments ago, the jewel he had seen mere seconds prior nowhere to be seen to say nothing of the rest of the structure itself.

A pool of black formed in front of him, a figure rising out. As the thing rose out of the black sludge it stood easily four times as tall as the man opposed to it. Crossing both arms over its chest before letting out a bellow in challenge, arms spread wide as the thing brought its face level with Robert. An intimidation tactic it would seem. The massive thing would step closer to him, every clash of foot and ground sending shockwaves around the 'arena'. There was no going back now.

 

[Tyr]

"Finally." Robert declared in satisfaction as his quarry finally made itself known.

He was glad of the cryptid's consideration, appearing quickly once he had found its lair and attacking without any needless theatrics. This was how it should be, the young giving the elderly their due respect.

Respect that wasn't reciprocated. The massive claw came down, but the reply from the Auric Knight would've been laughable to any who did not know the pilot. A closed fist met with the claw, the two limbs clashing with one another with a reverberating slam, and despite the difference in size the claw was stopped entirely. Grabbing a hold on the claw with the arm, Robert did not unsheathe his sword. There was no need for that just yet. Instead, Robert clutched Seah Unsurtr's outstretched hand with his unoccupied hand as well, roughly from where the elbow was.

The Divine Knight twisted its body, and with herculean effort Robert threw the cryptid over his shoulder.

"Now what will you show me next?"

---

In that past time his hair was not entirely white yet but gray, and his wrinkles weren't quite as numerous. "The final trial? So when I beat this shadow monster this farce will finally be at an end?" A younger-yet-still-old Robert Stoddheim growled at the air. His helmet had been lost in a battle against monsters, and his armor was scratched and dented. He was not expecting an answer, no answer had been received this time either, but he voiced his frustrations nonetheless.

It was all rotten. Something about this entire situation reeked. He had come to this place to investigate the loss of several patrols, and had found a shrine that housed within it a den of monsters and demons and even a place straight out of outer space. But not a single sign of his men. He had seen no signs of battle or fallen throughout the shrine, and even the few weapons that were around the ground in this dull battle arena matched those who had been lost in the area.

So where were his men? What had happened to them?

It would've been so easy to blame their disappearance, their deaths on this place out of fairytales, but his gut was screaming at him that it was not so. That there was something foul going on. That someone had wanted him here, drawn him to this place to find this shrine, using his men as bait.

You did not live to an old age in the hell that was Earth by ignoring what your gut was telling you.

"Good!" The mortal glared at the shadow demon. Answers would be found through hell or heaven once this was done with. The moment Loa Erebonius brought its head down to Robert's level he slammed his sword to the ground, sending a slash of energy easily his size tearing through the ground straight towards the head that had so readily presented itself to him.

In contrast to his furious mood, the step, first among many that he took towards his foe was calm and steady, like he wasn't advancing towards a demon made entirely out of shadows and like he hadn't broken what should have been possible for a human to do.

"You seek to test me? I get lured here by someone hunting my men for a series of tests!?" Someone had played him for a fool. Someone or something had hunted and killed his men to get him to this place at this time. For what reason he did not know, but he liked neither of those things.

"You, feeble shadow of something greater, aren't worthy of sharing the battlefield with me, much less testing me! So come then, attack me when you dare. I'll tear you down to shreds!"

And most importantly of all, nobody messed with his men without answering to Robert Stoddheim, the finest knight of the fledgling nation of Erebonia. Man who would become a legend.

 

[MKR]

The massive Cryptid was flung overhead, trying to correct its course mid flight but instead crashing into trees and felling them while dislodging the earth with a semi-permanent mark. One which the beast quickly recovered from, running headfirst towards El-Prado as it clawed through the dirt before rising up and bellowing, the ripples it sent through the air with this roar far beyond that from before. The snow below them was blown away, trees would bend and the grass hidden underneath flattened in response. Then, to make matters worse ice congealed in its wings and rained down on the Auric Knight. This attack less damaging but more aimed at freezing the machine where it stood.

---

The titan nor the voice would answer his cries, instead it aimed to finish the job that its armor showed another had started. Even as the energies collided with its form and cut into it rendering a gap into the form of the beast before him. First it brought one of its claw like arms down, one of the claws scraping through the grey 'dirt' below as it did so. A swipe aimed to bisect the would be Awakener in three. An attack then followed up by the monstrosity's features opening wide. Its 'jaw' revealed to be lines of jagged teeth with no clear beginning or end to where the mouth and body connected. From there black smoke bellowed forth, burning across the ground as it shot in every direction indiscriminately.

During these movements the being's phantasmal nature became even more clear parts of it were clearly see through, especially the area which he had cut open and moved around yet all of it held mass. A lot of it at that heavy thuds movements which were fine for its size but at the relative proportions seemed sluggish and weighted. This thing seemed to defy all logic all sense. A violation of the laws which shaped the world.

 

[Tyr]

Where snow, earth and even the trees alike were all forced to bend and scatter before the Cryptid's roar El-Prado alone stood defiant, standing still in the opening while waiting for the Cryptid's attack. Robert snorted as he saw the ice congealing on the wings. Now El-Prado unsheathed its sword, the movement so fluid as to be near instant.

Not waiting for the ice to come to the pair, El-Prado dashed towards Seah Unsurtr, the hand not holding the sword curled into a fist. Right as they were about to enter the artificial ice storm Robert punched the air, the energy in the punch sending forth a wave of air pressure. Robert had heard many terms for the energy over his life. Ki, mana and aether to name a few. Whatever it was called did not matter, Erebonians had always known to channel it through their martial arts and he was no exception.

The wave of pressure was not as wide as the storm of ice, but nor did it need to be. All it needed to do was clear the air between the Cryptid and the Divine Knight, and it did that well enough. Inside the cockpit Robert grinned, and his sword took a golden glow to it as he reached the Cryptid and slashed twice, a horizontal left-to-right slash followed immediately by a vertical up-to-down, finishing the cross.

---

Despite the size difference Robert managed to sidestep the shadow being's swipe by a hair's difference. Not one to let an opportunity to slip by, especially one made by his own actions, holding his sword with both his hands with an overhead swing he brought his sword down, doing his best to hack into the now vulnerable wrist and attempting to cleave it through. While such a swing would have been suicide against a human opponent, he felt that here it was worth the risk as it was not an elaborate dance of swords between equally sized opponents.

Yet before he could attempt anything more than that, Robert was forced into a hasty retreat emphasized by a string of curses as the burning black smoke rapidly approached. Running as fast as he could, though he was forced quite a distance away from his foe and could not attack it again, Robert did manage to barely stay ahead of the smoke.