Puppet & Puppeteer

Chapter 2

Aeons ago, the humans barely had any creations. They were weak, clueless and stupid. One day, a certain tribe appeared. They were saints and saintesses, or like what they wish to be called – oracles. In ancient times, the oracles were what sent prophecies from the gods to the humans. At first, the humans did not trust the tribe. However, time and time again, the prophecies foretold by them came true.

The humans began to put their trust in them, and slowly, civilisation was built. The head of the tribe, saintess Vistorial, was crowned the empress after the empire was named after her. She fell in love, got married, and gave birth to a daughter. Unlike fairy tale stories, this story did not have a happy ending. After all, war soon came. Empress Vistorial sent thousands of soldiers onto the battlefield to fight against their enemies, demons.

Despite the difference in numbers, the soldiers either got torn to shreds, or were devoured. All hope seemed lost. Empress Vistorial resorted to her last choice. She was going to use a sacred spell. The spell was one which could summon a god or goddess from the upper realm to the mortal realm. When they were going to cast it, all the saints and saintess passed away along with all of their children. It was so sudden that empress Vistorial had no idea how to react.

She did not wish to give up just yet. She used her own soul to summon a god/goddess and in turn, her life was given away. The god/goddess defeated the demons, but summoning his/her did not have a cheap price. The god/goddess cursed the royal family. "All descendants of whom summoned me shall be females." As soon as she finished, she disappeared.

Years after, the people still remembered her words. They passed on her words to each generation through fairy tales. 16 generations passed, and then, a male was born. A miracle they called him. Indeed, he was. The first male to be born into the royal family. His name was Felix. Felix Vistorial. The noble faction was not to keen with that fact. They attempted to assassinate him many times, but they failed. They all failed miserably. The young prince  then became the emperor as his parents had died early.

The age? 6. He was the youngest ruler. He had many titles bestowed on him. The best? 'The 17th ruler and the 1st emperor of the great Vistorial empire.' He threatened each an every one of the nobles with their weaknesses and had full control over the empire. Tyrant, they say. Again, yes. He can be called tyrannical. He conquered many kingdoms, and one day, he met a little girl in the slums.

He merely looked at the begging girl as the sound of lush green trees rustled. "Are you okay?" He asked as he reached out his hand to the little girl. The little girl had silver hair that was pretty dirty and she also had blood red ruby eyes standing out from the silver. A solemn look on her face, she glared at the young prince. She did not dare speak in front of a boy who was dresses head to toe with expensive clothes. She could tell, he was wealthy, unlike her.

His servants thought it to be odd. How could their master help a peasant? Well, it was because he sensed great power within the girl. "What is your name?" He asked, as smile on his face. "I-I don't have one." She answered with great annoyance after moments of hesitation. "Well, see this flower?" He plucked out a flower from the soil and showed it to the girl. "This flower is called a Freesia." The girl looked at the beautiful flower.

"A Freesia." She repeated. "Indeed. I shall name you Freesia. And your surname shall be Vistor-" "Wisteria." She interrupted. Felix did not probe deeper as he could tell that that name was of great importance to the girl. In fact, that surname was the surname of her parents who had dies when she was 5. "Do you want to come to my house?" He offered. Freesia blinked. She was not sure how to accept the boy's offer. "S-Sure." She stuttered, not looking into the boy's eyes. After all, Freesia needed to survive. That was what her parents would have wanted.  The day after, Freesia awakened her powers. She pledged to protect Felix, whom she sees as a god. Strangely, Felix knew that would happen as he was partially a saint and he would see into the future occasionally. 

"Kill." Felix ordered, and Freesia would do so. She killed and killed, until she got sick and tired of it. Though Felix was her friend, Freesia could not bear to kill any further. She was tired of it. Tired of it all. She let go of her anger. She murdered the people who called her a miracle, like they called Felix. Having said that, she had another friend. She was a daughter of a baron. She had olive green eyes and blonde hair that shined like gold.

Felix was not the person whom Freesia had thought him to be. She had thought that all the people she killed had done something wrong. But the truth is, some were framed. They were innocent. Felix just could not see that. Freesia had pleaded with Felix to stop, but Felix did not. Pushed to the edge of a cliff, Freesia made a choice. She used her power to massacre the people of Vistorial. Felix could not bear to see his childhood friend kill his people.

He made the choice to use an ancient artifact to kill Freesia. That ancient artifact was one that would allow the person casted on to reincarnate with all their powers and memories intact. Freesia's friend, the olive-green eyed girl came across that artifact in a secret room she stumbled on when she was invited to the palace. Mesmerized by it, she touched it. At the touch of it, some sort of power flowed through. It was not called ancient for nothing. It awakened the power of a saintess in the girl. At that moment, she realised that she was a saintess. The last saintess.

Not knowing it herself, the saintess broke the ancient artifact. When Felix used it to kill Freesia, the ability of the artifact went to 4 other people. All of whom are unknown.