Last Scion Of The Sun

Death of Azrael

Almost in the middle of the capital city of the Surya empire stood a huge castle. Ten lean, square towers had been built on various tactical spots for an ideal defence and were connected by enormous, firm walls made up of sturdy cobalt stones.
In between those enormous walls and the towering tall towers, erected a magnificently built majestic palace. The four storeyed tall palace which was built in pagoda style stretched far in the distance. Constructed in nearly  90 thousand metre square area, there were thousands of rooms in it. With large spacious dining halls, countless bed rooms, library, indoor training space, armories and many more.
One of it's most prominent feature, the banquet hall, which was decorated with gold and numerous valuable jewels was capable of hosting more than a thousand guest at a time.
Just by looking, anybody could tell that it was the royal palace of Surya empire, where the king resided.
In a dimly lit room, a quill pen dipped in ink laid atop some papers on the table. At the periphery of the table rested an old oil lamp. The flickering lights from the oil lamp illuminated the room in warm colors.
Suddenly a gust of cold breeze entered the room from the open window. The curtains of the window's danced as the cold breeze caressed it's body. And as the breeze blew past the oil lamp, the fire in it blew as well, darkening the entire room.
Creak~
The door of the room slowly opened with a creaking sound as a silhouette of a person emerged from within the shadow.
"Who left the window open?"
The person spoke in a gentle tone.
Step! Step! Step!
The silent dark room was filled with sound of his footsteps as he walked towards the window. He stretched his hands to close the window.
But upon witnessing the beautiful moon which was shining brightly in the night sky, he paused.
As the luminous glow of the moon fell on his face, his appearance became more vivid. His azure blue eyes beautiful as it seemed, revealed a distressed look on his face. His bearded masculine face as handsome as it seemed, showed no smile. With a concerned look on his face, he kept staring at the moon releasing gasp of breaths time and again.
As if something was gnawing on him, he looked tensed.
"Your majesty!"
Suddenly a voice of women reverberated from behind him.
"You shouldn't be here at the middle of the night. It's cold outside."
The women revealed her worries.
He didn't respond and kept on staring at the moon.
"You know that it wasn't your fault."
"It wasn't your fault that you had to leave Lun-"
Bang~
Before she could complete her sentence, he furiously banged his fist at the walls.
A long silence filled the room as the woman shut her mouth.
"I'm sorry about that, but please don't speak of her name."
Finally he broke his silence and apologized to women for his behaviour.
"What's happening with the Chandra empire? Why can't we communicate with the soldiers dispatched for the mines?"
"I've dispatch another batch of troops towards the mine to investigate the situation. They'll be here by the end of the month. Till then we've absolutely no way of knowing about what happened in the mine."
The women reported.
"Those bastard's from Chandra empire, they joined hands with the barbaric tribes of Naga's and attacked our northern territory unannounced like a coward."
"If not for Gilbert, then we would have already toppled them. Just because they got their hands on one of the continent's most powerful individual, they've been acting cocky."
He bursted out in fury and began to curse the Chandra empire.
Surya empire and Chandra empire were odds on with each other since the founding of the Surya empire. There wasn't a single moment in history when these two mighty empire hadn't clashed with each other.
From fight for territory to fight for the control of the mine, they've always clashed with each other. Neither of the empire forfeiting, no matter how many of their citizen or soldier died. They still continued to shed blood and kill each other, ignoring the deaths of countless innocents.
After countless people died and their empire started to falter, to avoid the meaningless bloodshed, both of the empire came to a truce and signed a treaty. The treaty went as such; Every year they would have an annual competition where geniuses of both the kingdom, which were less than 18 years of age would clash with each other. And whoever among them came out victorious would have the control over the mine.
The participants were simply unaware of the content of the treaty as it was never revealed to public. Thus, till this day the participants had the wrong impression of the competition. They simply thought of it as a platform to gain honour, riches and fame.
The treaty have been upheld for more than a hundred year, since the signing of the treaty.
This time too, a competition took place between the kingdom. And Surya empire did come out victorious as well.
But Chandra empire joined hands with barbaric tribe Naga and broke the treaty by attacking the Surya empire, despite losing the competition.
Chandra empire by no means was capable of defeating the mighty soldiers of the Surya empire. But one individual completely overturned the battlefield this time around. And that individual was non other than Gilbert.
Gilbert the leader of Naga's was a man who liked to fight more than anything else. For joining hands with the Chandra empire, he was offered the position of the commander of the soldiers of the Chandra empire.
But by no means he would have been satisfied with only that much. He was a greedy man from the inside and his greed was as large as his body stature.
The king of the Chandra empire had promised him riches and territories to fight for the Chandra empire. Gilbert being the greedy man which he was, accepted the offer of the king of Chandra empire and raged a war against Surya empire.
The feud which Azrael started for the freedom of Surya tribesmen still continued to this day, even after the death of Azrael.
"If only if we could find the bow of Azrael, we wouldn't be in this situation."
The bow that Azrael used in his conquest, disappeared with him as well.
Nobody knows the cause of death of Azrael.
At the early age of 50, Azrael's carcass was discovered in his bedroom. No signs of blood, no signs of poisoning, he was still fine the other day and was even attending to his kingly duties. But the next day, he was found dead in his room.
Azrael who never slept in, used to always wake up with the first ray of the rising sun. But the day when he was discovered dead, he didn't leave his abode till mid-day.
Worried if something might have happened to the king, the maids of the palace went on to check on him. Repeatedly calling out for him and still not hearing any response, the maids broke into his bedroom, worried.
As they entered the room, they found him sleeping on the bed, perfectly fine. The maids then walked towards him to wake him up.
They kept on calling for him, but he kept on sleeping. Worried that something might be wrong, one of the maid gently shook his body to wake him up.
Despite that he continued to sleep. Witnessing his unusual behaviour, one of the maid placed her hands near his nose to feel his breathing.
But there was no signs of breathing. In a state of worry, the maid quickly grabbed his hands to check his pulse, but his hand was as cold as ice and she couldn't feel any pulse from him.
Upon failing to feel his pulse, the maid rushed towards the palace's physician. In hopes of saving him, she ran as fast as she could.
After a while the physician arrived with the maid. The physician then quickly grabbed Azrael's hand. He then started to feel his pulse, but the result was the same. He couldn't feel any pulse from Azrael.
After examining Azrael for a while, the physician declared him dead.
With that declaration, the guards came rushing towards the room.
The groups of maid who were the only one present there at the moment were suspected for the murder of Azrael and were taken into custody.
Despite being innocent, they were powerless. And infront of people of power their opinions mattered not. No matter how much they begged, cried or pleaded, they were still apprehended for the crime which they haven't even committed.
Azrael's only wife during his lifetime had passed away during the time of giving birth.
His only son Axel was on a diplomatic trip during the time he died. Axel was only 20 years of age when he lost his father.
And after the death of Azrael, the fate of the kingdom relied on a young 20 year prince who had yet to experience the life.