Chapter 60: THE CORVUS BROTHERHOOD
At a large training dusty field, hundreds of soldiers were training different types of combat exercises, including different types of weapons, heavy and light, piercing and blunt, even soldiers training on horses, and no need to mention the others training to use the catapults and ballistas for ranged devastating attacks.
A little show for only a glimpse of the strength of the Legenican army, these soldiers used to train under the harshest conditions, they may train on dangerous cliffs on the mountains, they may train on the coldest night in the winter which is already worst in Legnica than any kingdom, the deadly frost weather of the winter doesn't stop those men from training, that's why in terms of the army and warriors, Legnica comes first before any kingdom.
While the soldiers cries were echoing in the vast field while training, someone was eying their progress over a cliff of the hill beside the training field, that one was Legnica's general Scaldris himself, the fire holy spiritual knight, possessor of one of the three strongest bound spirits called the holy bound spirits, they are spirits for three dragons that the gods gifted them to the humans and elves to maintain order and peace, these bound spirits keep moving from one generation to another after the death of their spiritual knight, they chose another suitable successor to carry their pure and strong spirit, Scaldris here is one of those rare and lucky people across the history of the continent to have such a gift, the power of the holy spiritual knights is incomparable, even at a young age they can defeat hell grade dark casters easily.
Scaldris was watching his young men train hard while holding a damaged helmet in his left hand, he looked a bit sad, he raised the helmet to take a closer look, there was a wide vertical cut over the front side of the helmet, something has cut the steel of the helmet by a brute force, and tragically, there was old faint stains of blood on the helmet even inside it, the helmet looks old as well as the blood over it, but it's clear that whoever was wearing it died in a gruesome way, imagining a thing capable of cutting the steel like that requires high rigidity and sharpness as well as a brute force to cut it like that.
Scaldris sat down and rested his back over the tree behind him while still looking at the helmet.
"I haven't found him yet, no clues over the years, but don't worry, I'm not going to surrender, I'll find him one day, someone like him can't disappear like that, I'm sure he's hiding somewhere.", Said Scaldris, he was talking to the helmet? And he was so engrossed in the conversation that he did not notice that someone was coming behind.
"Your men are training as hard as possible like always, don't you give them any rest?", Said Leonora while walking towards Scaldris from behind, princess Leonora Haveron, daughter of king Walt Haveron, ruler of kingdom Vidin, and not just that, she's one of the three holy spiritual knights just as Scaldris, she's the storm holy spiritual knight.
Scaldris heard Leonora then lowered the helmet and put it by his side.
"It's a normal drill, princess, sometimes they train in higher elevations on the mountains in cold days in the winter just to increase their endurance.", Said Scaldris calmly while looking to the right as Leonora was now by his side.
"That's even more than I expected when I decided to come here, but makes sense, your warriors aren't the best out of the blue.", Said Leonora politely while looking at the soldiers.
"The mother of knights, that's what we prefer to call Legnica, honor and descepline is the code that straighten our backbone.", Said Scaldris proudly.
"That proud tone of a soldier is what makes you unique, although you seem a bit different today.", Said Leonora as she noticed that Scaldris isn't like always, Scaldris looked at the soldiers without wanting to talk about it and Leonora noticed it.
"Mind if I sit beside you?", Asked Leonora.
"Of course I don't.", Said Scaldris while moving aside for Leonora who sat down, she was wearing a training uniform which means she was training too.
"How is your training going? Any new progress?", Asked Scaldris while still looking at the soldiers.
"It's going well, I'm already thinking about returning to my land, you've done a lot to me until now and I think that I can manage alone for now.", Said Leonora.
"Whatever you need, royal highness.", Said Scaldris politely, Leonora could easily sense he's not well, he usually talks more than that.
"So, what's the story behind this helmet by your side? Before you try to lie, I saw you talking with it before noticing me.", Said Leonora seriously, Scaldris looked at her before lowering his eyes while thinking then he decided to get the helmet closer to show it to Leonora.
"This is the helmet of the former general of the Legenican army, general Mailon, he was my tutor also and trained me since I was young.", Said Scaldris while smiling and looking at the helmet, Leonora noticed that even though the helmet is old but it has a different design than normal helmets of soldiers, probably because it was for the former general.
"And what happened to him?", Asked Leonora, Scaldris' smile faded away while looking at the helmet.
"He was murdered.", Said Scaldris in a sad tone while still looking at the helmet, Leonora was shocked but by looking at the state of the helmet she could see the damage.
"How? He was the general of the strongest military kingdom, how was someone able to even reach him?", Asked Leonora while looking surprised, Scaldris lowered the helmet slowly and placed it over his lap while thinking for a moment.
"He was called, the ghost of the Corvus.", Said Scaldris seriously, his tone was somehow angry, Leonora felt that the name was somehow familiar but she couldn't remember.
"Who was that?", Asked Leonora curiously.
"An assassin, he was a follower for the religious brotherhood called the Corvus brotherhood.", Said Scaldris.
"I read about this brotherhood in the library of the capital here in Legnica after I came here, they worshipped the demons who were called the shadow slave demons, right?", Said Leonora.
"Right, two centuries ago a knight named Selkath Corvo was the first to establish a connection with these wretched demons, they are different from the scarlet army demons but they are no less dangerous and even have an original name that was lost over the years, anyway, with the help of the shadow slave demons, Corvo was able to put the basics and be the original founder of a totally new dark art called the negative abyss, although it also depends on dark energy just as the dark magic but it's actually different in every aspect, the negative abyss allows its user to be physically stronger and faster while using it in addition to numerous abilities that needs years of training, in other words, it's more of a direct fighting art unlike the dark energy which depends o-.", Said Scaldris before Leonora interrupted him.
"Which depends on various spells, it doesn't provide any physical abilities just as the divine magic.", Said Leonora, Scaldris looked at her in respect.
"Exactly, Selkath then disappeared after creating the negative abyss and killing several people with it, but his acts didn't go unnoticed, as some people decided to take the same path like Selkath, this exact part is actually not surely known but somehow the Corvus brotherhood was created, people who worshipped the shadow slave demons that Selkath found a way to connect with, they were able to use the negative abyss but not as strong as Selkath, in fact, by that time, it appeared that the negative abyss is less effective compared to dark magic.", Said Scaldris.
"Why? Shouldn't both of them be strong because they depend on the same type of energy?", Asked Leonora.
"It depends on how you channel that dangerous energy.", Said Scaldris.
"What do you mean?", Asked Leonora.
"Listen, in the case of the dark casters, are they born with the ability to use dark energy?", Asked Scaldris.
"No, no human is born able to use dark energy, only the demons and hybrids are born naturally with the ability to use it, the dark casters tend to use the sacrificial ritual to be granted a vessel for channeling the dark energy, a non physical vessel that allows them to use dark energy in the form of spells as it doesn't course through their bodies.", Said Leonora, she seems very knowledgeable.
"Precisely, that's to ensure that they can use dark energy for longer time without fear from harming themselves if they trained to control their vessel well to not allow the dark energy to approach their soul because if it happened they will die instantly, the dark energy is unstable and very dangerous, that's another reason why it's forbidden alongside the fact it's originally demonic.", Said Scaldris.
"But that doesn't answer a question, if the scarlet demons grant the dark caster a vessel for dark energy, what do the shadow slave demons give their worshippers?", Asked Leonora.
"That's the reason why the negative abyss is not effective compared to dark magic, they give them nothing.", Said Scaldris.
"What? But how are they able to use dark energy without even a vessel?!", Asked Leonora while looking surprised.
"This part is vague too as everyone captured of this brotherhood committed suicide before telling us anything, but somethings were found, all of the followers for the Corvus brotherhood were cold blooded assassins with gruesome past and trauma, some of them were identified after their death, kids who were lost during a young age after various accidents that affected their psychological state, after that they disappeared completely, probably that's the time were someone started training them, and here comes the point that induced the idea of the urgency to get rid of this brotherhood.", Said Scaldris while Leonora's expressions were gradually becoming worried.
"Don't tell me that the basics that Selkath Corvo put for the negative abyss along with the shadow slave demons were actually producing the dark energy from the negativity of their past!", Said Leonora in fear.
"That's the harsh reality, the dark energy aren't in a vessel this time, they produce it by focusing on their negative thoughts, their traumas, and more importantly, pain, all the users of the negative abyss have torturing marks over their body, they're put under high mental pressure to finally reach the level of being a completely broken person, a savage, they're not humans after that, and that's when they become able to create the dark energy and control it within their bodies, that's way more dangerous than the dark magic, but that doesn't exclude the fact that the shadow slave demons may have introduced something for its worshippers to be able to create the dark energy after all this torture, but we still know nothing about this fact actually, the Corvus brotherhood is one of the biggest mysteries that ever existed in Legnica.", Said Scaldris.
"That means they aren't stronger than dark casters, they must have been able to use it for several seconds or couple of minutes maximum before needing to rest, maybe not continuously using it and depending on separate activation of the negative abyss through different time intervals, which means they can easily be defeated if their pattern was well recorded, now I know why you said it's not that effective.", Said Leonora confidently.
"You should be a general not a princess with a tactical mentality like that.", Said Scaldris while smiling, Leonora shyly smiled while looking away before looking back at the helmet.
"So what was their goal? Why did they target the formal general?", Asked Leonora, Scaldris remained silent for a moment while looking at the helmet again in sorrow, Leonora easily noticed that Scaldris isn't happy to remember what happened.
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