Darkline

{Reclaiming the World}

Gierfreed lay dying on the castle floor, reaching out for the salvation of the sun. His strength...drained, his body...going numb, all he could do now was wait for the mercy of death. He was alone...no brothers to aid him. Haiven lay beside him unconscious and Amadeus sat in a trance of amazement after the last fight.

"God...where are you..."

He pleads to the divine creator for mercy in his time of need. Amadeus knew all too well that his brother's cries would fall upon deaf ears. After the sins he and his brothers committed, they were undeserving of God's grace. Amadeus stumbled over to his weeping brother and knelt before him.

"This is as far as we go, Gierfreed. God won't help us now. We've failed him."

"Why, what have I done wrong!? I've done all I could for you, God! Please answer my cries!"

Amadeus couldn't help but feel saddened at hearing his brother's plea for power. But even so, after all, Gierfreed's done from behind the shadows, he's not a man to be easily forgiven.

"Enough, Gierfreed, you've done all you could. Now all that's left is to abandon all that we have grown with. We have no army, no knights, and not even any subordinates."

"You're...you're right..."

His sudden agreement shocked Amadeus, Gierfreed was never one to agree with his young brother's, but to do so while he's knocking at death's door was all irony to Amadeus.

"Everyone was too weak because I was weak..."

"Huh?"

"And in our time of weakness, a formidable foe knocked us down...of course, it's all so clear to me now..."

"What do you mean, brother?"

Gierfreed rebuilds his resolve to go onward, with sheer willpower alone he commands his nearly lifeless body to move. His blood-stained hand covers his wounds as best he can. Forward he thinks forward towards the throne. With a fire in his heart, he forces himself up the steps of the throne.

"Why do you persist, Gierfreed!? We are mere ants to the mighty, brother...our reign is no more—"

"No! My reign is not done! I am the king of this world!"

Not even the brink of death would stop Gierfreed now. Amadeus, followed behind, wondering where his brother's will would take them. Gierfreed was determined by any means, even it meant resorting to what he had learned when he and his brothers gained their powers.

"Why must you fight? Our reign as kings is over, Gierfreed. We must walk the humble path of a commoner now,"

"I must get to it...I need to get to it!"

"It? What're you talking about?"

With little strength in him, Gierfreed crawls behind the thrones to a room full of weird drawings and markings placed around in every corner of it. There was a shrine dedicated to someone. A man that the Kings called 'God', yet wasn't the one that everyone would think they were referring to. In fact, this 'God' of theirs seemed much more passionate looking. Almost as if it was the Devil himself.

Gierfreed crawled and crawled to the shrine where a book was closed and the title reads 'Ut autem facti Deo'. Gierfreed sits down in a chair in front of the dark book. Gierfreed began to tremble as his wounds grew worse. Amadeus looked upon his brother and gasped at the realization of what he planned to do.

"Gierfreed, no!"

"I must read the words before I die..."

"You mustn't do this brother, you need help."