My Adventures In Philia

1. The Beginning

(This is the new rewrite of my first chapter, hope you would enjoy!)

Philia always felt like something created out of pure imagination.

It is filled with powerful magic that runs through the ground as the earth's veins, strange beasts with distinctive features, and countless unknown locations to discover its mysteries. All under the watchful eyes of the Gods above the clouds.

Of course, in every story or tale, there is always a beginning.

I would like to share a brief history of an empire, where the main story will take place.

In the center of the Zara continent, a great empire ruled called the Rose Empire.

The Rose Empire stood tall as a symbol of both peace and strength according to the citizens' kind words. Its large octagonal walls surround the empire, protecting everyone from within, and allied with two other empires, the Arden Empire on the north and the Minerva Empire on the south.

There is also a meaning behind our empire's name,

Within the grand palace are gardens of elegant roses growing in various colors, which have been thriving for decades. The Emperor, Auberon Gardiner is fond of these kinds of flowers along with all of his previous ancestors who adored the roses so much over the years. Some never understood why they look after them, perhaps it is because of the flowers' beauty or their simplicity because they care about nature. But even so, no one questioned it.

Soon the roses became the Empire's name and signature banner, a white silky flag with an embroidered red rose in the center and three large golden octagons outside.

The Empire is truly a pleasant place to call home and mellow with the sense of happiness in the air.

However, that feeling can't last forever...

It happened at the stroke of midnight, everyone had already settled in their beds with a cooling breeze blowing by and the large luminous moon casting its shimmering light on the dark surface below and revealing an army stepping out of the shadows.

Then all of a sudden, branches of the great walls are taken down and chaos started to brew with hot frantic fires continuing to ignite the streets as black smoke rises to the starry sky.

No one knew what was happening until they instantly smell the burning ash and hear the screaming of terror as the army rained blood all across the streets.

Many tried to flee from the danger, hoping to find somewhere safe however their lives are taken before they could think.

The enemies killed not a hundred, but thousands of citizens that night. The knight guards tried everything they can to stop them sadly there is no prevail as the chaos soon spread out and towards the palace where the monarchy family and almost all of the nobles were gathered for a special occasion.

The reason behind the assembly is still unknown, but nothing changes the fact that they are in danger.

They burst through the grand doors and stormed in, not hesitating to kill anyone in sight, either a maid, butler, or noble. Only a few nobles were able to escape however, the Emperor and his family weren't so lucky. The entire Gardiner bloodline has been wiped out of existence.

No one was able to lay a finger on them and it felt like it was over for the empire.

As they were about to seize the throne...a sudden pillar of blinding light shined down upon the palace despite being the middle of the night. And that's when we thought, the Gods had sent a miracle.

Four Heroes arise from the pillar and engaged the army in a fierce battle to stop them. Blood was spilled, blades clashed against one another, and deviously powerful magic erupted throughout the halls.