With the long-standing rival finally gone, The First Victor clenched his fist and bowed to the heavens.
The mont he raised his sword and looked at his people, he declared that the entire continent would be unified under one Empire.
His people and his followers finally picked up swords, shields, and all sorts of weapons and joined the subjugation of the entire continent.
In no ti the land was finally unified.
To his most loyal commanders and generals, he gave them the territories each of them had the right to exist as allied kingdoms to the empire. These loyal subjects swore an oath that they will never be Seirende's enemies as long as their bloodline exists in this world.
To the third continent, he sent all of the families of the opposing tribes and kingdoms who were left without a leader because of their rebellion and gave the entire continent to be managed by his right-hand man and most trusted confidante, Vanderford. Thus the continent was now called Vanderford with his kin ruling the land until today.
To the Vesala Kingdom and other major forces which led the battle to invade the Seirende, they were assimilated under the Seirende's jurisdiction living as fallen nobles.
Of course, the direct perpetrators were executed and only their young descendants and won were left to survive. This is the last rcy given by the First Victor towards them, the oppressors.
Such was the birth of the largest Empire in Prasinos, Seirende, and its allied kingdoms.
And also the birth of the Prasinos that we know today.
At last, the First Victor finally had so peace. He never attributed the victory to himself but always preached that it was due to the rcy of the heavens that he was able to obtain such a feat.
Thus, he took an island at the center of all three continents and dedicated this to becoming a place of worship towards the Creator and communion with the guardians.
On that island, he made a Temple that will be a reminder that once in the Prasinos history, the heavens looked below and sent their rcies to the prasinons in peril.
Today, this island is where the main Temple was located.
Peaceful years started and the rebuilding was in full blast.
But since the Seirende Empire was now too large and the effects of the war were too much for the original citizens of the Seirende to manage, the First Victor ca up with a decree.
The remaining mbers of the fallen families which opposed the Seirende Empire will have a chance to be granted nobility in the Empire.
The condition is that they must show their loyalty and worth by contributing to the progress and restoration of the Seirende Empire. Once they were granted nobility, they would no longer beco discriminated against and their honor would be restored.
But they only have one year to prove their worth. Once the ti is up and they fail, they lose the chance to be treated as noble and will live as commoners instead.
The reason why the First Victor decided to recruit them was that he knew that their upbringing and education would be advantageous as they already had experience in managing their own territories before the war started.
With the decree, the nobles who were interested in restoring their dignity worked hard to regain so of their forr glory.
Of course, the condition is hard because of the one-year deadline and only a few of them managed to get qualified. Such is how the Vesala regained its nobility among all other families which survived nowadays.
Now after working with the stability of the Empire, the First Victor finally had the ti to investigate the mystery of the followers of Birsha.
What is the nature of their powers and how co they were stronger than most of the mages?
They did not manage to know the exact answer but there was sothing that they were able to extract from one of the surviving followers during the interrogation.
Birsha wants a vessel.
A strong vessel that can make him manifest his being on the surface of Prasinos. Once he had a vessel, the heavens could no longer detect him unless they themselves went down to the earthly realm and found his host.
Also, Birsha is clever enough to not only choose one host. He decided to divide his spirit into fragnts and bury his power in relics.
All the people who carried his relics are either his host or a host candidate, this serves as a mark that the host themselves are qualified to beco Birsha's Vessel.
However, this revelation was buried as unverified information along with the other information about the curse.
For he was the only one alive among those who could explain the thing further. As such, the First Victor had no way to know if he would believe in the information or not.
—
Eli, Anderson, Siegfried, and Kazimir looked at each other with grave expressions.
The information was too much for them to process, in fact, it was too mind-boggling knowing that the matter of the curse has been missing from any other readings for a millennium now.
"Birsha's Vessel… spirit fragnt… and relic… Who knew that so of the information that was just buried in the archives thousands of years back would be proven plausible today…" They all sighed, trying to ease away the overwhelming information they managed to uncover.
"Among the three points, we have already verified the existence of the spirit fragnt. As for the relic and vessel… we cannot conclude yet if the ones we all witnessed during the internal war are the sa as what has been described in the records…" Anderson comnted, a worried look appeared on his face as he looked at Kazimir.
Even if he put it in a lighter way, his words ant that Carolina's display of curse power, even the book that hovered in front of her during her battle could be easily identified as the relic. Her ability to plant and recall the fragnts might also be an indication of being a vessel.
However, he dared not to say it. No one in the room dared to say it, not even Eli.
Because Carolina was still Kazimir's biological mother.
"No… as one who had experienced the power first hand… Mothe- the culprit, Carolina Vesala might at least be a vessel candidate. At least before our very eyes, she displayed the power to manipulate and control the spirit fragnts at will… and even… plant it to people." Surprisingly, Kazimir was the one who directly spelled out the words for everyone.
"I could still rember everything about that day… The feeling of sothing being forced into your consciousness… eating away every bit of your sanity…" Kazimir trembled as his eyes turned dull like he was reliving that mont of despair.
"That mont, it was like my soul was being crushed into the dark corner of my being… I have no power over my body… and sothing was trying to take control. But reading the First Victor's origin I finally understand the fiery existence that fought against that dark being invading my being… it was actually a blessing from the guardian Ignis…"
"In my veins runs the Seirende blood, and because the protection of the Guardian was in it… the spirit fragnt failed to easily invade ."
"Then another existence ca in, helping the dark existence to defeat the power of Ignis in my blood. It was the Vesalas bloodline. Which now I confirm had the power of Birsha in it."
"It was a rcy from the heavens… because the very mont that the fiery existence was about to be defeated, the Paladin appeared on ti. She asked if I wanted to live but that entails erasing the Vesala's existence in my entire being."
"I told her yes. For that mont, I knew… existence will haunt even if I have survived."
Everyone was silent, the mont Kazimir opened up about the darkest experience of his past. They felt sympathy and admiration towards Kazimir who was willing to open his wounds once again and bring light to their doubts regarding the information.
Eli looked at the trembling Kazimir with conflicted emotions. It was so bizarre to hear the tale where she was involved, but no one at the table knew that it was her who saved Kazimir.
Looking at the once haughty prince now trembling in fear and anxiousness at the thought that he might have been a vessel to such an abominable being, Eli knew that Kazimir decided to risk what was salvaged from his reputation and is ready to subject himself as a testimony proving the claims against his very own maternal family.
Once this information spreads, his very existence will be looked down upon by everyone.
And so, Eli decided to also give Kazimir her utmost signal of respect.
She stood up and looked at Kazimir. Then she placed her hand in her heart and pronounced an oath to the heavens.
"I, Eli of the Forgeoworn and Farauld Clan, vow not to arbitrarily spread the information about the First Prince of the Empire Kazimir Nox De Seirende unless otherwise ordered by the Imperial Law!"
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