Burst_Swords to the Skies

by Adam Wan

  ...

  I opened my eyes and saw the blue forest we were in. I looked at the sword, Callias and saw a blue blade in front of it. It must have been the sword, Frysta.

  "That was from the first king?" said Sora with her eyes widened.

  "It has three names written on this page" said Spica, who was checking the last page.

  I came to look and saw the three names on the page. The names were Cielo Ryea, Ciela Ryea and Nea Zudas. I was wondering what the other two names were.

  I forgot the people that I read in the people he knew section. But I remembered about reading those names before. I remembered something about Ciela being a relative of some sort, a sister? Maybe?

  "I never heard of Ciela before..." said Sora.

  There was a short moment of silence as I thought deeply. The silence was broken by a sudden question from Vergus.

  "What was that skill, Cel? It was insane!"

  "I used two skills at once because I was dual wielding"

  "It was just... Amazing, you know"

  Silence fell upon us once more. I looked around before talking to see if anyone wanted to talk before. No one seemed to be wanting to say something, so I took a short breath and spoke.

  "Well, whatever. Let's get this sword" I said.

  "Yea, sure"

  Sora and I approached the sword. We placed our hands on the grip together. I looked at Sora, and she looked at me. We nodded our heads and looked down at the sword.

  We tried to pull the sword up but it felt like I was pulling something that was stuck in dried concrete, and I was only pulling a sword from the ground.

  I looked down at the blade and saw that the vines were holding to the sword tightly. I tried harder and harder. Sora and I made short grunts as we pulled the sword.

  "You can do it!" shouted Spica.

  "Yea" said Vergus with his fist in the air.

  The sword started to rise up, bit by bit. The vines grip on the sword has decreased. And from the ground the sword was stabbed into, there was a golden light shining from the hole.

  "Gahh!"

  We fell back and landed on the ground. I opened my eyes and looked down. I was overjoyed to see the legendary sword in our hands.

  "We did it" I said with a smile.

  "We sure did" said Sora.

  The blue light that shone through the gaps in the leaves disappeared and was replaced by the darkness of the night, which meant that the lighting turned back to normal.

  We stood back up and turned around to see our friends smiling. They started to clap their hands and cheer for us.

  I looked at the sword named Frysta and crouched down to take it. I grabbed on to the grip of the blue ice-like sword with my left hand and stood up.

  "Let's take these home" I said as I held the swords in my hands.

  "Yea" said Ayla.

  "I'm tired" said Vergus.

  ...

  We were on the way back to Hullanic and his carriage, there were hoots from owls and chirping from the crickets in the cool starry night.

  "Umm... Honey, why didn't you use your wings? I hadn't seen you use them to fly for a long time" asked a curious Sora.

  "Oh..."

  I could not answer it with full confidence, all I knew was that I could not fly for a long time. I instead showed them my wings, the wings appeared on my back with a slight glow.

  "Your wings seem to be damaged... You should repair them" said Sora.

  "I don't think I would use them even if their fixed"

  "Why?"

  "I just... Don't prefer flying..."

  I never knew why, I didn't like using them to fly. It has been a long since I used them too. I just like ground combat more. Flight also does not register in my mind unless I think the situation through.

  After a while of walking, we eventually reach Hullanic and the carriage. He was having dinner while the horses graze the grass in the area.

  ...

  While everyone was asleep, I looked out of the window and gazed at the glowing full moon. The moon was accompanied by the twinkling stars of the cloudless night.

  "Ciela Ryea... Nea Zudas... Who were you? What was your role in the rise of the first king? The book is in Spica's pocket... If the book was where he dumps everything in detail, it should show everything he knew. I need to borrow that book" I thought.

  ...

  "Thank you, Cel" said the king.

  "No, Spica, Vergus and Ayla helped too" I said.

  "Oh, thank them for me"

  The king turned around and looked at the swords that were placed on the table next to him.

  "Where would the swords be placed?" I asked.

  The king turned his head slightly to his right before turning his body around and faced me.

  "The swords would be placed here, in this room. We would make special pedestals for it, and beside it would be a label"

  I tilted my body slightly to the right and looked at the two old swords that were placed on the glass table that contained some photos that had labels placed under them.

  The book was in my right hand. I looked down at the book and raised it to chest level. I looked up from it and took a deep breath as I faced the king.

  "Dad, can I ask you something?" I asked.

  "Sure, you can ask anything you want" said the king in a friendly and polite way.

  "Well... Can I borrow this book?" I asked.

  "Of course you could!"

  I was happy to hear that answer from him. I smiled and answered "Thank you" respectfully.

  I opened the book and flipped the pages to the section that has the names and roles they had in Cielo's life.

  "Ciela Ryea... Nea Zudas... Here I come" I thought as I flipped the pages.

  "Here it is"

  ----------

  A/N

  Hi, reader. This took a while to make, it took a few days. It was pretty good for my standards.

  I would be great to support the series there too. Hope you enjoyed this side story. Thank you for reading, and see you all next time. Bye!

  Mother's Requiem

  1st of Alias (8th month) 2363

  <>

  "Hah!"

  "Hyaah!!!"

  Loud shouts came from the mouth of a woman. She was practicing with her husband. The name of woman, Sora Alt-Ryea. Basically, it was me.

  Cel was quiet as he swung the wooden sword around. He did not seem to be struggling at all, he even had a slight smile on his face.

  My face had a serious expression as I blocked and swung my sword in various directions. I stepped back and forth as I blocked and attacked him.

  Clunk. The wooden swords made that sound when it hits each other. We locked our swords, pushing each other back with every step we took.

  "Ah?!"

  I let out a short scream when Cel pushed hard, causing me to fall backwards, ending the lock.

  All that I could do was look at his movements as I helplessly fell. Cel quickly shifted his right hand over his right shoulder and behind his head. My eyes widened at the sight, he then swung his sword sideways, down towards me.

  I tightly closed my eyes as I waited for his sword to hit my body. I felt the wind hitting my skin, meaning that his sword was near my body.

  But it was not the feeling that I expected to feel. It was like a soft touch on the area around my chest.

  I felt the ground on my back, the impact hurt slightly. I slowly placed my head on grassy ground and opened my eyes.

  "Did I scare you?"

  Cel said that as he offered me a helping hand. He had a soft smile on his face, it made me smile too. I grabbed his hand and stood up, I could feel the warmth of his hand even through his leather glove.

  "You did scare me, a little" I replied.

  I knew that he did not want to hurt me. When we duel, we would determine the winner through various methods. The most preferred was the first strike, and Cel landed a light first strike on me.

  Wipeout was a little extr
eme, the duel continues until one of them pass out, which is not really pleasant.

  Cel got me back on my feet. I was slightly surprised by his sudden movement towards me.

  He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me lightly, his hot breath could be felt on my neck. I hugged him back and placed my head on his right shoulder before letting go.

  He let go of me and held my right hand. He suddenly turned around and looked at the ground behind me.

  "What about that sword?" he asked.

  I turned my body around at looked and the ground. I laid my eyes on the long wooden sword that I dropped on the ground when I fell.

  The blade was cylinder shaped and the tip of it was round like a dome. The crossguard was a simple cup, the grip was some fabric that was wrapped around the grip area.

  "Oh, yes" I said as I crouched down to grab the sword.

  With the sword in my left hand, I held Cel's hand and walked towards Spica and Ayla, who were watching us practice from the sidelines. They were clapping their hands as we walked.

  I looked up at the blue sky. The clouds were like shooting stars that were not moving or the trails left behind by people who were flying at high speed.

  "You did well, Sora" complimented Spica.

  "You did better than how I did, at least" said Ayla.

  I sat down on the chair and took the juice that was placed on the table next to me. I took a sip and looked up at the umbrella with my eyes closed.

  I had a thought in my head. I wanted to know how to get stronger, I never got to come close to winning against Cel anymore. He used to be my equal but he seemed to have gotten a lot better than me.

  Cel had an original skill called "Light vs Dark", which was a 64 hit combo. The second original skill with the highest hit count that I know of was the "Mother's Requiem" skill, which was a 59 hit combo.

  "Are you thinking about ways to beat me or something?"

  Cel suddenly asked, it was pretty much what I was thinking about. I was slightly shocked when he asked that question. I opened my eyes and looked at his face.

  His face was sweating from the practice we did, mine should be sweaty too. His hair was pretty long for a male, his fringe, which was slightly combed to his right, covered his eyebrows and almost touched his eyelashes.

  "Yea... I wanted to get stronger" I replied.

  There was a short moment of silence before Cel broke the silence.

  "Do you know the person who knows the 'Mother's Requiem' skill?"

  "Oh, yes. She's the strongest swordswoman in the kingdom, right?"

  "Yup. She's having duels at the Hanelth's Dojo. She would only teach people who seem to be quite good. And I bet that you could get her to teach you"

  "Why don't you teach me?"

  I asked immediately after he finished his sentence. My leaned slightly towards him, my eyes were kind of wide.

  "She should be able to teach you fighting styles that are more suited for girls"

  I was quiet for a short moment as I leaned back slightly and looked down as I thought. I quickly broke the silence with a question, Cel was about to ask but it was too late.

  "When could we go?" I asked.

  "Soon is fine. I wanted to tell you that I have a meeting with some knights in Galaya. The new government has been formed and they need our help in rebuilding the world"

  "Can we go now?" I asked as I leaned closer to him.

  I felt slightly uneasy because I asked in an impatient manner. I shrunk my body slightly as I waited for his reply.

  "Sure, let's go"

  I breathed out in relief when I heard that answer. Cel stoof up and stretched his legs, I stood up and waited him to finish stretching.

  "Let's go"

  He said that as he held my hand and started to walk. Spica and Ayla looked at us before standing up and walking towards us at a pretty quick pace.

  "Where are you going?" Spica asked as she walked.

  "Hanelth's Dojo" I answered.

  "To fight Lumi? Oh, she's fast, like, really fast" said Ayla.

  "Yea, Ayla's match was ended in a second or two" said Spica.

  "Woah" I said in amazement.

  Ayla was pretty good, her duels with Cel would end in more or less 20 seconds, but 1 or 2? That is insane! She must've a mighty opponent, but... who was Lumi?

  "Who's that Lumi?" I asked.

  "The owner of the 'Mother's Requiem' skill" Cel replied.

  "Wait, wasn't it Rori?" I asked.

  Rori Lyla was the owner of the skill, from what I had heard around 5 or so years ago. What happened to her? That was the question that was repeating in my head.

  "She died, Lumi is her successor. Well, daughter" Cel replied.

  I was a little shocked and a little sad, the feelings were jumbled up inside of, I was actually pretty confused.

  "What did she die of?" I asked.

  "I don't know, I've heard that it was some kind of disease or curse" he replied.

  "Oh..."

  Ayla suddenly spoke out when I was thinking about Rori and how her daughter was a great swordswoman too.

  "If you're going, we're going to watch" said Ayla.

  "Oh, yes... Sure, let's go" I said in a hurried manner.

  We continued our walk away from the field. We were on the way to town because the dojo was located in the west part of town. The town was a busy place to live in.

  The carriages carrying goods and people were all over the place. The sounds of people were prominent too. We actually had a hard time getting through the crowd there.

  ...

  "That was one busy town"

  Spica commented as we entered a building. The wooden plank floor made a few creaks as we stepped on them. I saw people dueling in padded armor while making shouts, screams and grunts.

  In the center of the room was a big white carpet, there were two people who were dueling there. One was a male while the other was a young girl. The male was wearing a full set of padded armor and a helmet while the girl did not wear any armor.

  The girl twirled her whole body while in she was in the air and smacked the guy's chest, causing him to fall to the ground. The crowd clapped their hands when they saw the sight.

  "I'm... Done..."

  The man said as he fell unconscious. The girl threw the wooden sword aside and placed her hands on her hips. She leaned forward slightly and said "That's what you get for choosing Wipeout"

  The girl wore a shirt tunic underneath a black hood, the hood was pulled down. Her eyes were golden in color and she had long and straight black hair that flowed down her back. She had a pair of black leather boots that was knee high. Her belt had a scabbard on her left side and in it was a sword with a black handle.

  "Her 59th win!"

  "Could anyone stop her?!"

  The crowd was amazed of her performance and skill, and maybe even her speed. The crowd roared and clapped, it was as if we were in town again.

  She twirled in the air immediately from her previous pose. She landed back on the floor with her legs spread around 80 centimeters apart from each other. Her right arm was up in the air with her little hand curled up in a fist. Her face made a cute expression with her eyes closed as she shouted:

  "Yea!" in a high pitched voice.

  She was basically a female version of Cel but with a lighter personality. She seemed to be an open and talkative person.

  "Anyone wants to be my 60th opponent of the day?" she asked in her casual pose.

  My heart was beating like crazy. I took a deep breath and stepped forward a few steps. I said "I-I" in a rather shaky voice.

  "Oh! Your Highness!" she bowed her entire upper body down in respect.

  As she got up, she looked to my left and widened her eyes, she smiled when she was up. She raised her right hand pointed at Cel, who was standing on my left.

  "Oh, Prince Cel Alt. I'm looking forward to dueling you. May I? Princess?"

  "Oh, yea. You can if he wants to" I replied.

  I looked at
Cel, not only me, but the whole crowd did. He stepped forward and to the center of the room.