Virion Eralith
"Gramps, you need to order Veer back now, he's losing it." Arthur told me as we sat in the council room together alone. "Sylvie told me that he lined the wall of the tunnel he entered into with corpses with ice swords in them, he pinned them to the wall, and left them there to die."
"I know." I agreed, Virion needs to return, he has been on a rampage for weeks now, of course, that rampage is helping win this war, but he is losing the war in his mind. "He sent me a report this morning saying that he was coming back soon, I believe it is because he doesn't have the numbers to take on the bigger forces, which is a good sign for us, he's not running head strong into battle."
"Oh, I didn't know that." Arthur said. "I wonder why Sylvie didn't tell me about that."
"Maybe she didn't know Veer sent a report." I suggested. "Anyways, how are they? I believe you told me that they are together now." Arthur laughed a little, and I asked. "What? Are they not?"
"They are." Arthur answered me, good for Veer, it's good that he has someone with him at this time. "Honestly, Sylvie may be the only one keeping him sane at the moment, she told me how she had to bring him back to reality during the one attack where they killed five thousand."
"That's good to hear." I paused, and then said what was on my mind. "It scares me though, and I know Lady Sylvie is powerful, but if they truly are this close, what will happen if something happens to her." Arthur looked like he knew something, but didn't say it, he only nodded his head.
"Yeah, you're right, if something happens to her, I think he might snap." Arthur agreed with what I was thinking. "I don't think he will let that happen though, same with me, I won't let her die."
"What happens if you die, Arthur? Do you think Lady Sylvie would be able to control him? I don't." I know Veer is just a child, but to the people of Dicathen, he is almost a god like figure, I still only see the boy I trained in Zestier, the boy I helped master his blood powers.
"I don't know." Arthur answered honestly. "Do you know how Tess is doing?" I was still getting used to them being together, my granddaughter and Arthur, but I knew this would happen eventually, they had always been close.
"She's fine, but it's good to hear that her future husband is worried about her." I shot a sly remark at him, knowing I would make him uncomfortable.
"Huh." He sighed. "Even if we weren't together right now, I would still ask how she was doing." I knew that.
I wouldn't say this to him, but I knew she spent the night with him at the party. "I know, Arthur, I'm only joking." As I was speaking the doors to the council room opened, and two people walked in, causing me to stand up. "You should not be walking, Cynthia!"
She was hunched over, walking with Lance Varay who was helping her stand up. "Oh, stop it, Virion." Cynthia shot at me, and then turned to Arthur. "It's good to see you again, Arthur." Arthur's face was one of both shock and happiness.
"Director Goodsky, let me help you." Arthur got out of his chair and made his way over to her, placing her other arm around his shoulder. Lance Varay had her other side.
"This is all unnecessary." They helped her up to a seat on the edge, to my right. "So, Virion, I heard the younger Virion has been up to no good." Lance Varay stood behind her, whereas Arthur went back to his chair, and I sat back down. "That child is taking on too much by himself, I've heard from Lance Varay that his kill count is somehow over ten thousand, that, that is just unbelievable."
"You haven't seen him in a while, Cynthia." I told her. "He has changed, not in bad ways, but he is no longer the student you accepted at your academy."
"I figured." She said sarcastically, then started to cough, I went to get up, but she held her hand out for me to stay sitting. "I also know he was responsible for saving me, with your help, Arthur."
"He stopped your curse when it activated using his blood magic, he caught it just in time." I told her. "And he has been doing his best to keep us fighting in this war, he has killed two Retainers, and captured another."
Cynthia's eyes widened. "I did not hear that; he has become that powerful?"
"He has." Arthur answered. "And he didn't just kill them one at a time, he killed two at once, in one battle." Cynthia's eyes were still wide as she thought about what he did. "I killed the other."
"You killed one as well?" Arthur nodded. "Which means you killed three out of the five, and captured one, that is remarkable." It looked like Arthur was going to say something, but he didn't, he held back his words. "Have you come across any Scythes?"
"Yes." Arthur answered quickly. "We came across the one named Cadell, Veer and I fought him, and barely made it out alive."
"I see." Cynthia nodded, thinking about their battle, she was from Alacrya, so she knew more about this stuff than me.
"How has Lance Varay been treating you?" I asked her, looking at the Lance standing quietly behind. I was thinking about teaminhg Virion up with her, instead of Arthur, she was taking a break from barricading Etistin, and when she arrived her, I assigned her to Cynthia.
"Lance Varay has been nothing but kind to me, don't worry, Virion, I'm fine." Cynthia, my best friend, said. "I've come here, first, because I wanted to walk around, and not be in that room any longer, and second, I wanted to see how the war effort was going, hopefully, I can help you." I haven't been burdening her with questions on how she can help us, I wanted to wait until she was healthy.
"You don't need to push yourself, Cynthia, at the moment, there are no battles going on." I told her, and then went on. "Everything is being fortified to withstand an attack, Elshire Forest, Etistin, the Wall, Slore, Blackbend, and more, we are preparing for all possible situations."
"I see." Cynthia thought about what I just said. "I don't know the plans for how they intend to attack Dicathen, but from what I have heard, you haven't seen their full force, but I think you all know that."
"We figure." I said. "They're waiting for something; we just don't know what yet."
"What about the Lances? Where are they all?" Cynthia asked, she was trying to gather information so that she could help us, I wanted to tell her to go back to bed, but we could use her help.
"Lance Varay is here, Lance Virion is currently in the Elven Kingdom, right on the boarder, hunting down Alacryan camps underground." Her eyes widened. "I know, his blood magic allows him to sense the people underground."
"No, that's not it." Cynthia shook her head. "The one thing I did learn about the war plan, was that there was a giant force being sent to the Elven Kingdom, if Virion comes across that, he may be in trouble."
"He knows." Arthur said. "Veer has a suspicion that there is a large force there but has not found it. He knows he can't fight it alone, that's why he intends on coming back, isn't that right, gramps." That was what I told him earlier.
"Yes."
"That's good to hear." Cynthia nodded her head.
"They are trying to capture Veer though." Arthur told her, and she seemed to understand why.
"That makes sense, I can see why Agrona would want to have a Blood Deviant in his possession." She's right, I'm just glad he is on our side. "He probably wants to do experiments on him."
"Yeah, of course he does." Arthur said.
"Let's get back on track, Lance Bairon is at the Wall, he is help out there where he can, Lance Aya is in Zestier, doing the same thing, and Lance Mica is in Darv, trying to figure everything out with Buhnd." Like I said, we were working on our defenses, Virion was the one seeking out battles using his magic, those are the ones happening most frequently. He did tell me that he was using clones to search for the enemy, which I still find insanely fascinating, and always will.
"Seems like there isn't anything I can do." Cynthia said. "You know how their magic works now, right?"
"Runes?" Arthur said.
"Yes." Cynthia went on. "If you know that, you know that Dicatheon mages, yes, there are fewer, but they are stronger, more spells at their disposal." She grabbed her head like she had a headache. "You just need to know that Agrona has been planning this for years, he might be, no, he is the smartest person alive."
"Cynthia, I think you need to go back to your room." I said, ignoring what she said. "You look tired, let me walk you back." I stood up and made my way over to her.
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not." I said, motioning to Lance Varay that I'll handle it. "Come on, Cynthia, you can help out more when you are one hundred percent."
"You are such a pain in the ass." She got up slowly and grabbed onto my arm. "Where is Aldir? Windsom? I remember seeing them before my coma, and I haven't since I woke up."
I froze, stood still, and looked at Arthur, he spoke up. "They are gone."
"What do you mean gone?" We stood at the edge of the table now, Cynthia looked at me. "What does he mean?"
"From what Virion has told Arthur, the asuras attack Alacrya, and broke the treaty they had, so after their plan failed, a new treaty was formed, one that said they couldn't help us out anymore." I didn't know how Virion knew all of this, but he was there, they must have told him something.
"Oh, that's unfortunate, I wonder why they did that." Cynthia said, and I started helping her towards the exit, but before we left, she shot something over her shoulder to Arthur. "I'll see you later, Arthur."
"Alright, Director."
"There's no need for that anymore, Cynthia will do." We exited the council room and started walking down the hall. "Wow, he has grown up so much, the look in his eyes though, that scares me."
"What do you mean?" I asked my friend.
"I don't know, but when I look at him, I don't see a sixteen year old boy, I see a thirty to forty year old fighter, who has taken countless lives." She might be referring to Virion, that is what came to my mind.
"The thing is, Arthur has only been in one battle, unlike Virion, who has been taking on small forces basically on the daily. The look in his eyes though, was not like Arthur's, he still seems like a child, but you should know, he is losing control of his mind." I feel like she should know this. "Virion has a corrupted Beast Will that has an Alacryan Virus in it, he's slowly losing more and more control over his brain, which is causing him to go crazy, kill hungry, power hungry, just yesterday, he took on a force of a thousand men by himself, and killed them all."
"What?!" She exclaimed, and I nodded my head, telling her I wasn't lying. "He's truly that powerful, I was thinking more on the lines of Lance Varay and Lance Bairon, but that means he is on a whole different level than them as well."
"He is." I told her. "He refuses to leave the war, saying that we need him, which is true, but I feel responsible for that. I was the one who trained him to use blood magic, I pushed him to use it really, he told me he was scared about killing people with it, but I pushed him anyways, I am the reason he is going crazy."
We stood still now. "No, Virion, stop blaming yourself, you can't do that with every problem you have, if you didn't help him, a lot more people would have died."
"Still, he might have had a chance to be a regular child though."
"What's the fun in being regular?" She asked me. "I understand, I don't want him to go crazy like you are saying, but Virion, there isn't anything you can do about it, I know of these viruses, but I don't know the cure."
"I wish there was."
"I hope I can see him soon; I want to see just how different he has become." Cynthia told me, and we started walking again.
"He'll be back soon enough, but the odds are, I'll be sending him off somewhere else." I shook my head, knowing already what he'll say. "He won't want to stay here for long, he wants to help wherever he can." It'll either be the Wall or Zestier, I know he wanted to go there.