Knight's Oath...

After the end of the civil war, the kingdom enjoyed a peaceful era upon the rise of the new king. The communities which were once lost were slowly rebuilding itself. The nobles were minimized, the knights regained their glory and honour and the peasants could at least have bountiful harvests and wholesome meals at home. Ruined chapels were redeveloped into magnificent cathedrals where the community could have a solemn place to worship the gods. Dungeons and gallows were torn down so that the community would not fear the king. Mercenaries were no longer favoured and they were replaced by royal guards. Everything was so perfect until the birth of the newborn prince, heir to the throne.

Plague began to descend on the kingdom. Harvest rotted leaving the community starving. Fires often broke out from nowhere, burning down huts and engulfing people as well as belongings; even the nobles were not spared. Death toll was high and medicine was never sufficient. The community believed that the newborn baby was a cursed child. Thus, they began seeking refuge in the cathedrals to be protected from the odious spell. They thought the devil in him had caused this misery and calamity upon the kingdom. Many demanded the king to cleanse the land from doom by removing the newborn for good. They suggested the chopping block, burning him in fire, drowning him in the lake and the worst of them all, smearing the holy sword with the king’s blood and using it to stab the baby in the heart to ward off the evil in him. The community was desperate to get rid of the cursed child.

The king ordered the priest to the castle. He then summoned the guards to defend his home from the invading civilians who wished to see his heir’s death. He gathered the knights in the throne room. He made them took an oath of loyalty to the king. “From today onwards, the light of holiness shall fall upon thee. Let the holy emblem of thy kingdom carved on your cape guide you to find a haven for this child.” The priest blessed them as witnessed by the king. Later, the king presented them each with The Eden, a holy sword. “May this sword serve thou well and ward off evil on thy journey.” The king said. The knights showed their loyalty by placing The Eden back in its quiver. They turned around and rushed to the castle’s square where their faithful horses were waiting. The king’s servants handed one of them something which would be needed when the time was ripe and whispered a war yell.

The guards then exclaimed, “Hurry, the gate will not hold much longer!” The other commanded, “Everyone, get in the line! Assemble and prepare for battle!” The king could only watch from the window of his tower. The queen too was beside him, sobbing that their end is near. The knights made a dash through the secret passage out of the castle, with one of them, the newborn was safely carried. The gate soon fell and crashed into pieces. Coming out from the dust were the community, armed with spears, sickles and axes. They gave out a war yell and thousands of them made a wild stampede on the greatly outnumbered royal guards. The royal guards screamed another war yell and they soon fought in the name of the king. Another bloody incident broke out after an era of peace. Can a mere hundred of guards stand up to the ten thousands of peasants? Obviously not! The community stormed into the castle, searching for the cursed child, killing everyone who stood in their way. Chambermaids were not spared; they took their heads and lined them up in the castle square. The community wrecked the castle’s interiors, stole any valuable goods and approached the king’s room. Upon their arrival, they could only see the king and queen hanging by their heads on a rope. To avoid being brutally killed, they would rather hang themselves. The community was furious to find out that the child had escaped. They were as if being controlled by demons that they began killing all the remaining royal survivors, dissecting their bodies and burned them all together in the scorching castle. Wails could still be heard from inside the castle however, it was pointless as sooner or later, the fire would engulf their cries and the day would turn silent again.

A peaceful kingdom was reduced to ashes all because of a newborn prince. The community fell apart and formed its own communes. The community blamed the prince for this massacre. The community believed that the devil inside him had poisoned the king’s mind so that he would find an alternative to save his son. The devil wanted to save itself. The community although now separated, they still held on to their grudges that the newborn was to be blamed for their misery. They brought with them the will of revenge should they encounter the newborn prince again. Meanwhile, the knights managed to bring the prince away from the community’s clutches. Ten of them set off from the castle in a hurry without an agreed destination. Along the way, two of them decided to disband because they were from the community. They committed suicide so that the prince’s whereabouts would remain untold. Five of the remaining died protecting the prince from bandits. With three knights remaining it seemed that they would not be able to fulfill the king’s wishes. One of them was mortally wounded and it looked as if he would not live much longer. He later died when he was asleep. The two left behind decided to honour their fallen comrades by carving their names on wooden planks, built simple tombstones and placing their Eden rooted down to their grave.

The two knights began to journey again. This time, they managed to arrive at a small, faraway village. They decided that this would be their new home to raise the prince till he was old enough to understand that he is the only heir to the throne and the sole survivor of the bloodiest massacre of his kingdom. Both of them find themselves wives and secured a brotherly bond. But neither of them was willing to take the prince to be their son because he was not, blue blood run through his veins. It was amazing that these two knights did not break their oath after so long, after the gloom they had gone through with their fallen comrades just to save this baby when they could have left him astray. Could the baby have the devil inside him which influenced their minds so that he could live on?

The child grew up into a fine young man. He then was told the truth about his past, his family, his people and the most important, his kingdom. The two knights humbly pledged their loyalty to him after raising him up since he was a baby. They told him that the name they had given to him was not real. In fact, it was an adopted name because they did not know his name. Being nameless was uncommon in those days; it was believed that one without name was non-existent. And so he Christianized himself. The knights then began teaching him to wield a sword, to ride a horse, to behave as a royalty, to charm the ladies like a prince did and to speak the way the royalty did. He caught their lesson fast enough and soon he was ready to be admitted into of the royalty class. However, strange things began to occur.

There was one occasion while he was practicing with one of the knights, he showed a killer instinct; he practiced as if his opponent was the enemy he should get rid of. He was stopped in the nick of time by the other knight just before he slashed his opponent’s head. Then, he went away after apologizing to him. There was something growing inside him, something very dark. “Could the legend be true? The priests had foreseen something dark about the king’s newborn. They told me that it would be a bad omen should he survive till he reached adulthood and he is nineteen now. We have got one year left to believe the priest or it will be too late.” One of them mentioned. “Yes, I knew this day would come. I’m glad that the king’s servant gave me this before I left. She was an aide of the high priest and she handed me this Mirror of Soul. She told me that when the time was ripe, I should present this to the boy. This mirror will be able to reflect the boy’s soul. If he is the devil as the legend has mentioned and the priest foresaw, the mirror would not reflect the boy’s image.” He said. The other asked, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? We could have saved our comrades and get rid of that evil being.” He replied, “This mirror will only work if the boy’s soul is tainted with darkness when he reaches the coming of an age, not when he is still an infant or young. What she meant when the time was ripe was when he reaches adulthood. The king was forced to save his son because the priests cannot be sure that his son is truly a devil. He thought that if he was to kill his son with a slim chance that he was not the devil they foresaw, that would be disastrous for the queen.” The prince overheard their conversation and entered the room. They looked at each other with a glare. The prince said, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?” The two knights jerked up when they saw him carrying a sword in his hand. A shout was heard “The mirror, flash it!”

True enough, there was no reflection. The prince managed to smash the mirror soon after. “Quick, grab The Eden!” Another shout was heard. The two knights prepared themselves to fight. “The priests were right. This is the devil which had caused calamity to our kingdom.” The prince unleashed the darkness he was dwelled in for nineteen years. He laughed, “Do you think you have the chance to kill a devil, mere mortals?” “We took an oath that we would destroy this evil with the Eden, all the ten of us.” One of them replied. Little did they know that it took the ten of them to defeat the devil; that was why the king summoned them all and gave each of them the Eden. The knights began attacking the devil with the holy sword but all their efforts were in vain. He was simply too powerful. They were mortally wounded. One of them rose on his knees and yelled, “Utopia, raise the Eden once again, give us the strength to cleanse this land from evil!” Something strange began to take place. The 8 fallen Eden rose from the dead and appeared around the devil. It was the souls of men who were blessed by the priests before they took off. They were given immortality. Soon after, the 2 knights completed the circle. They raised their Eden and soon the devil was sealed in the sword the prince carried. The 8 souls vanished after completing their duty. The 2 knights tumbled to the ground. “We still need to root this cursed sword in the kingdom grounds so that no one would be able to pull it out. The priests knew that the devil cannot be destroyed; it can only be sealed in an object. The lost souls taken by the devil will trap him so that he would never be unleashed again. We need to get back to the kingdom.” He said.

Though mortally wounded, the two of them embarked on their journey back to their kingdom. The remaining community did not recognize the knights when they arrived. However, when they approached the castle’s ground, it was clear that they were the knights who had helped the king. The community picked up their weapon once again and attacked the knights. One of them decided to stall the incoming mob while the other reached the burial ground where he was to plant the sword deep into the hard, sturdy ground. “You are not going past me!!” He yelled as he was stabbed in the stomach by the community. Finally, he fell to the ground and bled to death protecting his fellow knight. As the other tried to plant the sword, one of the incoming mob, threw a knife and it spearheaded right through his throat. As the community fast approaching, he somehow managed to drive the sword to the ground with all his remaining might. Just then, the mob arrived and began stabbing him with spears and sickles. The Eden slid from his quiver and rested on the ground where he laid dead. At long last, the knights had fulfilled their sworn duties and their oath to put an end to the royal family line should the prince had the devil inside of him. The cursed sword remained stuck to the ground even when the community tried to pull it out, they were unable to do so. They tried digging the ground but it was too hard till their shovels became blunt and bent. It was as if the sword was rooted to the ground, being pulled by the poor souls who died on that castle’s ground. Once again, the kingdom flourished, the community was revitalized and peace started to descend on these lands. This time, they could be sure that no more devil was going to appear again, the prince’s dark soul was gone forever, vanished or perhaps being trapped by the chains of his victims.