Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king-Chapter 1023: A night of art(4)

"Like the thundering of a mountain avalanche, the pack of Prince Wolf ravaged everything in their wake. They were a calamity without a name, a storm of fur and teeth that the world was not yet built to endure. The other princes, who had known only the long, golden age of peace, stood paralyzed. Some attempted to hold their gates, only to find the dirt stained red by dawn. Others fled, leading their people in desperate migrations across the earth, but the shadow of the Wolf was always faster.

Word of the tragedy in the fated forest spread like a fever. Realizing that they were powerless against a curse, the desperate sovereigns began a pilgrimage to the clearing where the Being of Power resided.

’My people are condemned to a life of fear!’ the Proud Prince Rabbit demanded, his voice trembling as he offered his own body as the price. ’They are hunted by monsters that know no mercy, monsters you unleashed. Grant us the means to escape such pain ! Take from me what you desire, but save us from the hunt!’

’Very well,’ Luna declared, her eyes cold. She found the man’s arrogance insufferable even in his terror. ’You shall have a tail to confuse the eye, and legs that can outrun the wind itself. Your ears shall grow tall, catching the sound of an enemy’s breath from fields away. As long as you run, you shall be safe. But for this, I take your pride, your courage, and your worth. You will never again stand your ground; you will only ever know the safety of the flight.’

But for every prince she blessed, two more emerged from the shadows.

’Prince Man is the only wall strong enough to hold back the Wolf,’ Prince Sheep pleaded, kneeling in the dirt. He offered a rope woven from his own beautiful, beloved hair as his gift. ’I beg you, give my people a value that will make Prince Man our ally. Let him see us as a treasure he must protect.’

’Your hair shall grow without end,’ Luna decreed. ’It will be shorn again and again, and from it, Prince Man shall weave clothes of warmth and beauty. He will see the profit in your life and offer you the safety of his fences in exchange for your fleece.’

The more time passed the less she was satisfied with the gifts she received, so instead she took what she desired from others, finding that their gift were not equal the worth of her blessing.

Prince Horse came forward next, a man who once valued his freedom above the very air he breathed. ’The wolves are tireless,’ he cried, ’and my people are weary. Give us the strength to carry our burdens across the world.’

’You shall have the strength of ten men and a heart that beats like a drum of war,’ Luna decreed. ’But for this, I take your wild spirit. You shall be a servant to the bit and the bridle, and your freedom shall belong to the one who holds your reins.’

Then came Prince Bull, whose people were slow and peaceful, and for this they became the favored prey of Wolf. ’Give us the power to defend our fields!’ he roared, offering his own gentleness as the price.

’Very well,’ Luna whispered. ’I give you horns of ivory and a fury that turns the blood to fire. You shall be a titan of the earth, feared by all who see you. But for this, I take your peace. You shall live in a rage that never sleeps, and even the color of a sunset shall drive you to madness.’

One by one, the sovereigns of the world were unmade. To Prince Bird, who begged for a domain where no wolf could tread, she granted the keys to the sky and the hollow bones of the air. To Prince Dog, who asked not for flight but for the strength to guard his people against the foe, she gave a courage more immovable than the mountains and a heart capable of suffering any agony for the sake of love exteded to someone who however would not always have his health at best interest.

The world was no longer recognizable as it once was . The slow, golden pulse of creation had been replaced by a frantic, panicked heartbeat. The Age of Peace was a forgotten ghost, buried under the weight of the new law. Death was no longer a quiet sleep at the end of a long life; it was a screaming predator in the night.

Pain was the new sun, and fear was the only rain that fell. The princes were gone, replaced by creatures of claw, wing, and wool, all bound together in a cycle of eternal strife that had begun with a single man’s desire to do ’good.’

And Luna, who watched the world unravel from her silken throne, deemed the Princes themselves the architects of their own ruin. She told herself that had they been content with their mortal lot, they would never have sought her door.

Yet, of all the sovereigns in creation, only one remained who refused to bow. Only one found the iron in his own soul to persevere without a god’s thumb on the scale. This was Prince Man. He saw his brothers fall into bestial shapes and turned away in disgust.

He armed his people with wood and stone, leading them into the teeth of the Great Enemy. For every victory, his people bled; for every field saved, a generation was buried. Eventually, seeing the ’blessings’ of the others, his people began to beg.

They traded their prayers for tears, until the Prince, who loved them more than his own pride, was forced to do their bidding.

He walked the fated road until he stood face to face with the weaver of the world’s end.

’I have long awaited you, Prince Man,’ Luna declared, her voice softened by a rare, shimmering respect. ’Every other crown has shattered at my feet, yet you alone sought to defend yourself with what was yours. Because you are the last who stands tall, I shall demand no gift from you. Speak your desire.’

But the Prince was not moved by her gentleness. He looked upon her not as a goddess, but as a plague.

’I want no kindness from you, O Unleasher of Chaos!’ he cried. ’Instead, I bring a gift to you,the only gift you seem to lack: the gift of sight. You, who name yourself a lover of Good, have birthed nothing but Nightmare! Look at Prince Wolf! Look at the monster you have made of him!’

’I gave him the tools he craved,’ Luna replied, her voice cold and defensive. ’It is not my fault how he chooses to wield them.’

’And what of the others?’ the Prince challenged, his voice trembling ’What of Prince Rabbit, so consumed by the fear you gave him that he abandons his children to the wolf? What of Prince Bull, whose rage is so blind he strikes his own kin at every sunset? What of Prince Sheep, whose very skin makes him a slave to the mercy of a master? You call these blessings? I call them curses!’

Luna shook her head, her divine narrowness unyielding. ’They asked. I provided. I see no error in my hand. But you have been granted a wish, Prince Man. Speak it now, or be gone.’

Seeing the hollow vanity of the divine, the Prince of Man felt a despair heavier than the mountains. He realized he could not save the world from its pain, only from its meddler. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

’My blessing? My desire?’ he laughed. ’I ask only this: Leave. Depart from this world you have shattered. Go where you can never again dictate the fate of a living soul. But remain close enough to watch. Be a silent witness to every drop of blood, every scream, and every sorrow you have caused, until the end of time!In hope you shall see the error of your ways with the eternity being your only companion’

Luna’s face paled, becoming the very color of the moon. ’It shall be done,’ she whispered. ’I shall go to the high dark, and I shall watch. But before I depart, I leave you with one final mark. Since you love the truth so dearly, I grant you the power to see further than any eye in existence,to see the horizon before it arrives.’

With that, she ascended, pinned to the black velvet of the sky, unblinking eye destined to watch the wreckage forever.

With that Prince Man returned to his people, and with his new, far-seeing eyes, he built a world of iron. He fashioned weapons so terrible the Wolf was driven back into the shadows. But time is a slow poison. With the passage of centuries, the noble Prince was consumed by the very clarity he sought. He did not just lead; he dominated.

He looked at the Sheep and saw not a brother to be protected, but meat to be harvested. He looked at the Dog and saw not a friend, but a servant to be broken. He hunted the Rabbit for sport and scaled the heights to steal the eggs from the Bird’s nest.

Luna sat in her silent heavens, powerless and weeping, as she watched the last Prince, the one she thought most noble, become the most cold and calculated evil the world had ever known.

In time, the world forgot her name. They forgot the garden and the golden pulse.

Only Prince Wolf, the first of the fallen, remembered. And that is why, to this day, no matter the age or the land, the wolf turns his face to the sky to howl his ancient, unyielding hatred at the Moon, cursing the one who gave him everything he wanted, and took everything he was."

And so the cloth fell, hiding away the first work of what will be known in the future as the movement of the Yarzat Mask.

Pleasantly satisfied with his work, the prince turned around to probe the guest for his opinion. It was then he saw something that puzzled him.

That he would never have expected, as ahead of Alpheo , the Mad Bull of Kakunia, the one rumors made him out to be a monster in human skin who took delight in the affirmation of his vices and virtues at the expense of other,loyal to no creed that wasn’t his own, was watching the cloth fall with tears upon his eye.