The King's Beloved

[Music Recommendation: "Night in the Brume" by Masayoshi Soken (Final Fantasy XIV OST) - available in Spotify or Youtube]

In the valley of the living and the dead, the light of healing came down and shined upon them. The blight that tortured and oppressed the people began to disperse like the wind from just a single touch of the maiden's hand. Along with it was a whisper of a prayer.

"Be healed," she said. And they were healed.

"Be purified," she said. And they were purified.

"Be cleansed," she said. And they were cleansed.

  What the whole clan of Sortis took days to accomplish with all of their manpower, Rania accomplished with just a single command. The elders, the leaders, and everyone who saw her couldn't believe their eyes.

"How can she not run out of holy energy?" they asked.

"Where is it all coming from?"

To which, she only had one answer.

"From the Supreme."

For indeed, she was once human and still was—only the Supreme has chosen her and equipped her with all the powers she had. 

And thus, everyone who had lost their faith from the Most High long ago, ever since Gaia started to crumble, began to regain their trust in him. For the longest time, they have turned their back, thinking that their world was suffering because of him. But if the Supreme indeed was the source, then why? Why did he send someone to help them in their time of need? Was he a God that gives both evil and good? No. He could only give the good. And all evil things were not from him.

Hours passed, and as the priests and priestesses of the Sortis family wiped their foreheads of sweat, they realized something.

"E-everyone… is healed?"

"Yeah… there's no more miasma coming from the people."

"H-how did that—but earlier there were still lots infected."

They then went to their leaders, and the leaders reported to their heads, and the heads reported to Mitis and her husband, and to Clavis and Illuminaire, much to their surprise. They then reconvened with Rania, Elliot, Luna, and Ducis to tell them the good news. The team was overjoyed after hearing them. Relieved, they finally decided to continue on their journey, taking Clavis, Illuminaire, and Selena with them. The rest of the Sortis family was left to look over everyone and take action in case something happened.

Before setting out, the team held a short meeting to plan their journey.

"First, we need to know where exactly Vindicta is," Luna started. "We know we should defeat her and such, but where is she?" Turning to Ducis, she asked, "Do you think she could still be there? At the heart of the planet?"

"That's highly possible," Ducis answered. "I do sense her presence there. The problem is… I can also sense it in many different locations."

"What do you mean?" Rania asked.

Ducis closed his eyes, and spiritual energies gathered towards his body, making it emit a translucent aura with golden dust in the air. Trying to focus on the certain presence that was Vindicta, he saw images in his mind of places where they were.

"These are… the shrines?" Ducis mumbled to himself. "Why the shrines? How could she invade such holy places?"

"Do you mean OUR shrines? The Guardian Shrines?" Luna blurted out.

"Yes," Ducis nodded. "I don't know what happened, but it seems like she created clones of herself and invaded all of the twelve Guardian Shrines."

"What are those?" Rania asked. "Are they like the doors in Anguis Solum?"

"Yeah, something like that," Luna answered her. "You see, there are only two ways to go towards the Guardian's realms—one is via the doors in Anguis Solum which Ducis protects and only kings can access, and the other is through the shrines. But those shrines are something we, Guardians, built that any Magi aren't allowed to use, except for a very few. We use them to go from our realms to the world of Magi whenever they call out to us for help."

"For thousands of years, those shrines have been a symbol of the people's hope and faith in the Supreme. A place where they pray and worship—the most holy places," Ducis continued. "And yet, Vindicta's presence is there? How could she even go inside the shrines? The shrines have the power to purify, so she shouldn't be there. Unless her darkness is already too great that the shrines couldn't purify her any longer."

"But the people's faith started to decline for more than twenty years now," Illuminaire butted in. "Perhaps, that lead to the shrines' weakened powers thus, enabling Vindicta to go inside."

Clavis nodded. "That's true. And I think I know why she's infiltrating the shrines."

"Why?"

"Inside the innermost part of the shrines are the Guardians' Crystal Obelisks, where spiritual energy is created and scattered throughout the planet. If the spiritual energy is the blood that keeps the planet alive, the crystal obelisks are the heart that pumps the energy throughout the planet. And if she's there, then it all makes sense why the planet is dying right now."

It was then that Rania remembered the vision she saw way back when she first went inside the Forbidden Chamber—the vision that the Supreme showed her at the library about a woman inside a huge crystal and the fissures on the ground connecting her crystal to the other crystals, sucking out the energy from them.

"You mean, she's somehow stopping the crystal obelisks from supplying energy throughout the planet?" Illuminaire asked further.

"She's not stopping them," Rania answered. "She's draining them of the spiritual energies and transferring it to her own."

Everyone gasped. A heavy atmosphere immediately fell over the place.

"H-How did you know that?" Clavis asked.

"I saw it in a vision way back when I just met Elliot and Ducis. It's a bit of a long story, and I'm sorry for not telling until now."

"If that's the case, then it only means she's been absorbing all those spiritual energies for over twenty years now," Elliot said, clenching his fist.

"… How do we even defeat that kind of enemy?" Clavis asked, worried.

Elliot pondered for a moment and answered, "First, we need to go to those shrines and stop her from sucking in more of its powers. But we need to do it fast. We only have 40 days left, and there are twelve shrines."

"Then let's divide ourselves and go to those shrines."

"It will be risky if we're too few considering how strong our enemy could be."

"Let's add the guardians to our numbers," Rania suggested. "They can fight on their own, too."

"Yes, let's do that. Then we can divide ourselves into groups."

"How many, though? We can't divide ourselves into twelve—that will only leave us with one or two people per shrine. That's too risky."

"Hmmm…"

"Why don't we try going together for the first two or three shrines to check how strong the enemy is? Then, we can decide how many groups we can divide ourselves into," Selena suggested, to which everyone agreed. 

And with that, the whole team set forth in their journey of saving Gaia. The Last 40 Days started, and their first stop—the Shrine of Ducis.

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