Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 552: The ancestral lands of the thirteen tribe (2)

Even the Seers of the tribes found it hard to see too much. Those who could hear the song of the land also were blocked from hearing it.

The land of the Old Gods is being invaded by a dark mist that came from an existence that is even more ancient than them

In the dark, waiting to be revived and to fulfil a prophecy prophesized millennium ago.

Those who are weak would go to the three kingdoms to side themselves with the strong, to change their destiny.

This is the time of the Great Chaos. And in chaos, there is tragedy, sorrow but there is also chance for opportunity and a chance for greatness.

Up there, in the stars, the twinkling light of distant stars, tells the stories of the battle of great heroes

Who would not want to be eternal? To be remembered for posterity? To be one of the stars up there in the sky, where people would tell your stories every winters to be read out to inspire bravery and great virtue?

But, those who are learned knows some other things. 

These learned people of course did not just stay in the land because they are cowards. They too wanted to leave their name and to be remembered. 

To be the one helping Asrana, to be bestowed that honor, which one of the Ten Tribes people that did not want it?

Those three tribes have always been rebellious. They were rebellious before and they are rebellious now. There is a cycle in this. 

Those who are learned could see this changes. Past entanglements, past sins and deeds would be settled in this battle.

The Three Tribes of the Shadowlands wanted to unify the lands and opens the Ancient gate, to sanctified their lineage and their tribes. 

This alone is a great rebellion. 

It is a rebellion against Asrana. And a rebellion against Asrana is a rebellion against the Heavens.

They were cursed before and they would be cursed after this. 

Those who learned past history would know that it is the three great tribes was the one that incited the poisoning of the Beloved of the Prophet.

These learned men and women stay in the land and waited for some signs to appear. This dark mist is one of those signs.

On the Illusion Forest, where most of the Eradites would live, those old people and Gifted men and women, look on as the mist around their forest become even more thicker

It fills the forest with a certain power

One of the learned men look at this phenomenon, his eyes was clear and there is a trace of excitement on his face and said toward the people of the tribe, 

'This mist would protect us until the Ancient gate is open. Lend the Gift of Hospitality to those who enter our forest from now on and accumulate good deeds so when the Final battle began, our souls would find salvation' this is his word.

It echoes from this learned man hut and the people of tribe listens to this man.

The mist covers the forest and protect them from the deadly cold winds. The ten feet statue of the Askenael, the God of Death of the Thirteen tribe seems to glow with golden colors.

Those tribespeople all prostrated to the ground

'Hail Askenael, the Unseen One'

Guardian of the Illusion Forest release their mana and the cold winds did not affect them. 

Old Gods seems to exist again this time, manifesting directly to the mortal world. This changes did not only happen toward the Eradites tribe. 

The Arakian tribe was also affected. The Illusion Forest is near the Tree Ring. 

The Tree Ring is so called like that is because there is a forest that is in the shape of ring

Inside this large circular shape of trees, in the middle of it is a large village.

It is where most true blooded Arakians lived. Most of the wandering Arakians is those who did not have true lineage or mixed blooded.

Each tribe have their own ancestral lands. There is some small towns and small city all over the continent but most of the power of a tribe is concentrated in the ancestral lands of their tribes

Most of those who were privileged enough to live in the ancestral lands would not wander and some of them knows some ancient lore and ancient knowledge of this Great Chaos.

So, most of the people in the ancestral lands would not go to the Three Kingdoms. But those who are young, those who are weak, those who wanted a different destiny, they went to the Three Kingdoms.

The wanderers make up the majority of the tribespeople that followed Arial into the Three Kingdoms

Some of them went toward the Three Kingdoms to run away from the Darkly Things, knowing that they did not possess the strength to fight against the Darkness that is encroaching all life 

Even those who knows these story is tempted and went along as the Godstree is the bane of the Darkly Things.

Those who stay here is mostly those who were Gifted, possessing the blessing of fire and speech. Arakians worship the God of Trickery, Eremetheus.

Eremetheus is not the God of Fire. But if the lore is to be believed, when he had stolen the Holy Fire from Varleon, he had brought about a blessing toward the people of Arakian, giving some of them the ability to control fire.

In the Tree Rings, there is something that they protected with their live. It is the Orb of Fire, said to be the very same Holy Fire that Eremetheus had stolen from Varleon.

The Orb however looks like a white crystal. The fire could not be seen. It is a sacred duty of protection handed down toward the generation.

This fire could only be lit with the power of the Priestess of Asrana. The other one is Asrana himself. The lore was very conflicted in this matter. 

That night, the Orb of Fire grows hotter and black flames appears, warming the entire forest and forces the cold wind to leave the Tree Rings alone

But the orb itself was not lit up.

The Arakians that still live inside the Tree Rings cheers as they fought against the Darkly Things that appears.

They seem to be attracted toward the Orb of Fire.

But, this time the Darkly thing did not dare to come near the Tree Rings as the heat of the Orb of Fire grew hotter.

'Protect the Holy Fire!' the guardians shouted.

They fought the Darkly Things and some of them hurl flames from their hands.  They fought bravely and fiercely even as their people fall one by one against the Darkly Things.

The Elders of the Tribe look at the battle and knew they could not hold on. He run toward the hut and shouted

'This is the tribulation of the tribe. There is no other way. Let Fate and Destiny decide. Let the Guardians fight for a chance of survival. The othersleave now. Go towards the Three Kingdoms and seek Asrana. Let him claim the Holy Fire and let not our ancestor's devotion toward him go to waste' The other tribespeople hearing this knows the intention of the Elder. They are hardly people, the Arakian tribes. They did not hesitate one bit as the young help their parents, packed weapons and they run from the forest

The Guardians are all old people. They did not mind dying for the promise of a new generations.

They have lived long enough and there is no other desire in them other than to see their next generation prosper.

There is a curse in every child of the Thirteen Tribes. For millenniums they have waited for a chance for this curse to be lifted off.

Today, there is this sign. Darkness encroaches upon the land. This is a sign of the coming of the Darkness. But it is also the sign of the awakening of Asrana.

They know that the new generation would either be the greatest generation of the Thirteen Tribe that had ever lived since the curse, or they would suffer under the next Dark Ages, making them one of the most pitiful generation of the Thirteen Tribe that had even lived

Argh!

Another guardian was bitten by the Darkly thing. As time passes, these Darkly thing multiplied even more

The Elders did not join the young as they run out from the area of the ancestral lands. The Tree Rings would protect them. 

The Elders make sure that there is a Seer among those people. 

There must also be a Pancadongeng among them so that the stories would not be lost and the people would not lose their heritage. 

Done doing this, he brought out his curved sword and join his fellow friends.

He jumps and fire covers him. It did not hurt him but it burns the land beneath his feet. This fire flows toward his sword, making the sword a flaming sword.

With one slash he cut off one of the Darkly Things.

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