Realm of Monsters - Chapter 727: A Tale of Titans

Chapter 727: A Tale of Titans

  “That night atop the mountain, I lost the majority of my army,” Bellum said. “And in the wake of their deaths, the god known as Stjerne was ‘born.’ Word spread quickly about the saviour of the drow village. Many drows began to worship him. He became a beacon of hope in the Northern Lands against my unified forces. I swore revenge for my defeat and the losses of my people.”

  “You went to war against him,” Stryg realized. He had read stories in the academy’s library about the bloody wars of the Northern Lands.

  “War? Yes, I suppose we did.” Bellum shook her head with a chuckle, “And you know what the funny thing was? Your father had no interest in any of it.”

  “What do you mean?” 

  “Stjerne has a brilliant mind, one that can see and understand complex patterns and problems that none of us will ever comprehend even a glimpse of. Yet he oftentimes is distracted by the simplest of things, like an ordinary flower he’s never seen before or simply the scent in the air after a night of rain. He didn’t see me as his enemy. To Stjerne, my declaration of war was like a child playing with her toys.”

  Stryg stared at his own dangling feet then, past the castle rooftop to the flooded city that lay below. “My father really is different than us, isn’t he?”

  “Stjerne— Death, is a Calamity. His siblings and he are different than all titans. They were born with a fragment of the World Soul’s heart. In many ways, they are closer to her than they are to us.”

  Her words resonated with Stryg. He wondered if his father felt as isolated from everyone around him as he did when he was young and living in his village. At least Death had his siblings, but what had it been like growing up in the ruins of the world after the Sundering? How did such an environment change an individual? Stryg didn’t know.

  He glanced at the scarlet-haired woman sitting next to him, her golden eyes reflecting off the first rays of dawn. Her brown complexion seemed to almost glow as she drank in the sunlight. “So, what happened next?”

  “Though I didn’t know who my opponent was, I knew I was outmatched. In retrospect, I could have gone to my father and asked him about the blue titan with hair like starlight and eyes like lavender. But I was young, stubborn, and I refused to ask for help from my father after I had gone out on my own.”

  “Yeah… I know what that’s like,” Stryg said wryly.

  “So does my daughter,” Bellum said. “After my defeat, I went in search of the one thing I knew could most certainly harm a titan. Orichalcum. A rare metal forged with fragments of the titan smith’s own soul, much like that book Belle tells me you carry.”

  Bellum drew her sword. Though the blade was jet black, sunlight trickled through the edges of the glass-like metal. “With this sword, I believed I could defeat my foe. I spent the next several years hunting your father down. My armies swept through the mountains, waging war against all manners of towns and cities that had rallied behind the banner that was Stjerne.

  “The only problem was that Stjerne had no interest in the war. He only appeared on battlefields every once in a while and that was only because he was attracted to all the deaths. Sometimes he’d simply wander around the field of red snow. Other times, he’d wave his hand and death would follow in his wake.”

  Bellum sheathed her sword, “I fought Stjerne on a few occasions. Well, ‘fought’ might be an overstatement. He never stayed to fight me. He would dance around my attacks, a playful smile on his lips, then when he grew bored he’d simply knock me away and disappear.”

  “Why? Why wouldn’t he just kill you? I mean, no offense.”

  “None taken. I often wondered the same question myself. It was only later that I learned about who he was. Calamities are still titans and they have no interest in seeing their own kind killed. That was the answer I was given, but in truth, I think Stjerne enjoyed ‘fighting’ me. There are few beings alive who’d ever knowingly dare strike at the firstborn son of Aleirune.”

  “He must be lonely,” Stryg whispered.

  “Immortality makes lonely people of us all. The women and friends you love will all die before you even begin to truly understand what it means to be one of us. We aren’t like them, cousin,” Bellum gestured to the city of Murkton below. 

  “Which is why the bonds between our kind must be strong.” Bellum placed a hand on his shoulder. “I am glad you’ve made friends with Belle. It is rare for a titan to be born, especially two around the same age.”

  “I’m glad I’m friends with her too,” Stryg said. “It’s nice to have someone who understands and doesn’t—” he stopped himself.

  “Doesn’t what?” Bellum pressed, though there was no judgment in her tone.

  Stryg shrugged. “Doesn’t panic or get angry when I end up doing things differently.”

  “Like?”

  “Kill a bunch of people. Crush their skulls with my hands. Rip out their insides with my claws. That sort of stuff.”

  “Ah, yes. Mortals do grow awfully uncomfortable when reminded of their own mortality. Whereas you and Belle are children of Death and War. I imagine you both have much more in common with each other than any of your mortal friends.”

  “I guess so.” He hadn’t thought of it that way.

  “You’re family. It’s only normal.”

  “So, what happened to the war in the end?”

  “Lunae and my father came to visit me. I had set out from Lunis over a decade ago by that point and I hadn’t visited home in over four years. It just so happened that they caught me at a bad time. My armies and I were in the middle of besieging a castle. That’s when Stjerne appeared in the midst of the battle.”

  Bellum blew out a breath of air, flicking away a lock of stray hair. “That was when Stjerne and Lunae met each other for the first time.”

  Stryg sat up, ears perked. “What happened?”

  “That’s a story for your mother to tell,” Bellum winked. “Suffice to say, the war ended soon after. A peace treaty was struck between both sides and the leaders of the major towns and villages gathered together atop a mountain to discuss the future. But negotiations take long and in time, what was meant to be just a meeting place became more. The beginnings of Frost Rim.”

  “Just like that? The war was over? What did my parents say to each other exactly?” Stryg asked.

  “It’s not my story to tell. But the war wasn’t over. At least not for me. I was still angry over the deaths of my people. I wanted revenge. Then something happened. I realized that despite all my efforts, despite the founding of Frost Rim and the alliances that stretched across the Rupture Mountains, people still continued to kill each other for the pettiest of reasons. Mortals, whether they are vampires, drows, or goblins, can all be selfish and apathetic.”

  Bellum closed her eyes. “Nothing had changed. I had set out to make a new Lunis, a place where people could be safe, but the only thing I managed to accomplish was to get countless thousands of innocents killed. Even worse, I learned that there were other threats, monsters from forgotten ages that had been attracted to all the bloodshed and used it as a feeding ground. In the midst of the disorder, they preyed on the mortals and used them to further their own plans. The Null Realms are vast, Stryg, and there are many monsters that lurk in its depths.”

  Bellum patted the sword symbol of her cloak’s clasp. “So, I founded the Ebon Order. I decided I would stop directly interfering with mortals and instead would dedicate myself to protecting them from those monsters. That is why the Ebon Order exists. To protect. We do not interfere with mortal affairs, unless higher beings are involved. That’s why I’m here. Trying to stop your mother from destroying Murkton, even if the orcs are the ones who destroyed my home.”

  Understanding dawned on Stryg. “That’s why you didn’t stop the orcs and Hollow Shade from destroying Lunis in the first place. Because that would be interfering with mortals.”

  Bellum scoffed, “No. I would have killed every orc and Shade soldier who dared set foot in Lunis. This is still my home and I wouldn’t have let mortals destroy it.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  “It’s complicated,” Bellum sighed. “The agents of my order that resided in Lunis at the time tried to fight back and help the Lunisians to safety. Some succeeded. In the end, Lunis still fell and Murkton rose from its ashes. At that point, my home was gone. To kill the innocent people who lived here seemed wrong. It went against what I’ve strived to stay out of for the last thousand years.”

  “I think I understand.” He couldn’t imagine killing Catherine and her children because of what others had done. Though, as for the others like Corvus Morrigan, he’d gladly kill them. “You said the agents that resided in Lunis fought back. Does that mean you weren’t there? Where were you then?”

  “I told you I founded the Ebon Order to protect the people from higher threats. I never thought my father would be one of them. Many years ago, he befriended an unknown titan that had emerged from nowhere. Caligo. The two grew close over the years. Perhaps they were lovers or simply the best of friends, I do not know.”

  “Did Solis know who Caligo really was? Or what Caligo really wanted to achieve? The extermination of all the chromatic species?” Stryg asked.

  “Maybe? I’m not sure. What I know for sure is that the two of them were searching for something for a very long time and Solis found it. A crystalline artifact of some sort that had the ability to manipulate space and pierce into the Null itself, the void between our realms and everything that exists beyond it.”

  “What did he want to do with it?”

  Bellum smiled bitterly. “He wanted to save the Ebon Realm. We knew the natural bridges that connected the ten realms were degrading and would soon break apart in what you now know as the Schism. The final degradation of the bridges would result in a cataclysmic eruption of power that could kill countless people residing anywhere near the bridges. Even worse, it could potentially destabilize the realms altogether.”

  “My father decided to protect the Ebon Realm instead. His plan was to use the artifact right as the Schism occurred to essentially cut off the Ebon Realm from the backlash of the bridges’ degradation. Unfortunately, the result would have left more strain on the other nine realms. The Ebon Realm would be safe, but the other realms… The death toll would be in the millions.”

  “Holo was investigating Caligo for a long time and found out Solis’ plan. She told me and Lunae about it. Holo and I tried to stop my father. But my father is powerful and the artifact only made him more so. We lost.” Bellum slumped her shoulders, “It was then, when Solis was about to enact his plan, that Lunae betrayed him and struck her own brother from behind.”

  “She betrayed Solis…?” Stryg whispered, eyes wide.

  “To protect the other realms, yes. The backlash of severing the twins’ Sigte bond destroyed Lunae. A titan’s power is tied to our emotional and mental state. Lunae could hardly move, let alone defend her city when it was attacked not long after. As for me, I was still recovering from my wounds against my father. Holo wasn’t in a much better state. She used the last of her power to drag my father’s body to her prison under the Ebon Tower. Where he stayed sealed for the last three hundred years.”

  “Until Caligo attacked the city and broke him out,” Stryg said.

  “Until Caligo,” Bellum nodded.

  “What happened to the artifact?”

  “It had fused with Solis. Holo believed the effect to be only temporary, but she had no way to extract the crystal, so it remained with my father. I imagine he still has it or maybe Caligo does now. Either way, it is a problem.”

  Stryg stared at the sun, his irises having expanded to take in the sunlight without pain. He thought of Solis and of Caligo, wherever they were, and their plans. The decision seemed clear, though he was hesitant to make it. After a long moment of silence, he spoke his thoughts aloud. “We have to find them.”