Crimson Flower

Prologue: Revenge

Tailtean Plains, Imperial Year 91

War erupts over the battlefield like wildfire, carnage and blood stretch past the dark horizon. Battle cries, clashing blades, and screams of agony created a symphony of war, deafening the soldiers. Warriors of all kinds seemed to have gathered, mounted on horses and pegasi. Rain pelted the faces of those in the battle, and soaked the ground below them. Soon after the battle commenced, a bright gleam formed in the sky, crashing down into the earth. A glowing blade pierced itself into the ground and exploded into a ball of fire; wiping out fighters in its radius. The gleaming weapon set the surrounding landscape ablaze. A gray warrior fell next to it, and then took the blade from the earth. Lights similar to that of the blade he wielded began to shine throughout the battlefield, those brandishing weapons akin to his crushed those before them with ease.

Somewhere amidst the chaos, a woman was among the knights, standing her ground. Knights were sacrificing themselves left and right around her, the ground lifted into droplets of mud as their bodies dropped onto the wet soil. They cried out her name as they defended the woman.

"Lady Seiros."

She stood motionless and without expression while her soldiers fell around her. Her pale green hair sat in a braid against her back while a delicate white flower laid perched in the strands on the right side of her head. Seiros gripped her blade, shaped like a burst of lightning, until her knuckles went white.

The gray warrior turned in her direction, his white beard moving with the wind. He glared at her across the field, knowing exactly what awaited him. She stared back, noticing the two purple lines drawn vertically across the left side of his face. As the sun rose over them, his blade split into multiple pieces that were all attached to one another; it stretched toward her like a whip. Many knights fell as it came rushing toward the woman, who sprinted towards him, her eyes containing a fury that could burn planets.

The clashing of their blades echoed across the plain as they ferociously battled one another, uninterrupted by those surrounding them. Soon enough their swords were pushing against each other, the two stood planted into the ground like statues. They both made unbreaking eye contact, words weren't needed to express themselves. The large bearded man separated his blade again, and began swiping it around her. She perfectly avoided each move, until it grabbed onto her weapon and wrapped around it like a serpent. The woman tossed it aside, the man's sword was thrown with it. She charged towards him and landed a punch with her right fist, sending the man reeling backwards, his head facing the sky. She then jumped and kicked the man, pushing him hard onto the ground, which shook with the impact. He slowly attempted to rise back up, but it was too late, as the woman shoved him back down and laid over him with a small dagger in hand.

"Tell me, Nemesis. Do you recall the Red Canyon?" Seiros asked with fury, his eyes shrunk as he remembered what she spoke of. The dagger rose with her arm as she prepared to strike his chest.

"You'll die for that! Die! Die!" She screamed hysterically as she stabbed his chest over and over.

Though he was long dead, she kept digging the blade into him, his innards almost fully exposed.

"You took everything... that I loved!" She was practically screaming at the corpse under her, attracting the attention of  the soldiers around her.

Once she had her fill, she heaved with exhaustion. Seiros was kneeling over the man's body, staring into his lifeless eyes. She then turned to the sunrise, her emerald eyes glistening in the light. Her knights around her roared as they celebrated her victory, her vengeance fulfilled. Seiros looked over to the bloodstained blade her enemy had carried, and slowly picked it up. She pushed it against her face, practically hugging it; her fingers were red with blood.

"He's gone now, Mother..."