The days of peace were over in Eternitus.
War was no stranger to these lands, where elements found their use as weapons of mass destruction. But within the maelstrom of warring sects, a common hierarchy had formed across the differing lands.
And the ones that once commanded an era of peace were those a part of the heat-soaked world of Calirium, its most stringent enforcer.
The world that once praised Fire as its greatest form of weaponry would soon be turned to nothing but forgotten embers in the wind.
"Rykard!" A man said, regalia dressed with a crown of pure gold.
A woman in similar attire stood to his left, dressed in red clothing fitting for a queen. She clutched his arm tightly, staring at her king, while their younger daughter was to his right, gently clutching at his robe sleeve.
The Royal family of Calirium were positioned in their bedroom, having been awoken to the terrible nightmare coming over their dominion. At once, the king needed to know what had happened, because the second he looked outside, all he saw were waves of water and plants of otherworldly size, tearing his world to pieces.
"God…!" The King said, "Rykard! Where are you?"
A moment later, the man the king was calling for arrived. Without a second thought, almost like he had been instructed, he pushed the king and his family back into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
His breaths were labored, tired, and exhausted. The heavy armor he had worn for all his life since becoming a Royal Guard had never felt so cumbersome to bear. Especially for a man who was known as one of the strongest warriors outside of their commander.
"My apologies, my liege." He responded, immediately darting to the window of the room, a longsword strapped to his hand.
"What has happened, Rykard?! One second, the day was high and well, and now everything has become bathed in currents and verdant life used for destruction."
"That's just it, my liege—,"
"Enough with the formalities! What is happening!?"
Rykard's eyes shuddered from how loud the king had yelled, but upon looking back at the world outside the castle, a new wave of destruction was bathing the red burning world of Calirium.
Homes were washed clean of their residents, swept away in endless floods almost biblical in proportion. If those people weren't drowned in the tsunamis, green, plant-like swords rained down hell from above, taking life indiscriminately.
Rykard took a few steps back, eyes unable to leave the masses of those being destroyed in seconds, while the forces of Calirium below used their Deviations of the fire element to try and fight back. The efforts were nearly futile. Until the entry of an armored man that seemed more like a god than an actual human.
Rykard knew him immediately.
"Listen, you need only know that the Azure and Verdant Empire are attacking us. Ignite is doing all he can to hold them, but you need to stay here until I can guarantee the evacuation efforts are fully prepared. " Rykard said, stealing a couple more glimpses of the devastation outside.
Ignite was their knight, the truest embodiment of what it meant to use fire as a weapon. Comparing him to a soldier was more than an understatement; he was more a guardian from others like himself than any mere warrior.
But even he had limits to his powers.
It wasn't too long before the other Knights would arrive.
"Ignite…oh my lord, this means, the others are here too, the other Knights of the Verdant and Azure Empire," the King said, visibly shaking so much that his daughter's hands couldn't stay still.
Immediately, Rykard moved to his king's aid as both his wife and he tried to console him. But no amount of consolation could stop what would happen—their world was marked for their end, and there was nothing they could do if the other Knights were here.
"Please, my king, you need to be strong like you've always been," Rykard said, shaking him a bit while looking over at his wife and child, "For them and your people."
Boom!
The whole castle shook like an earthquake had hit, throwing them all to the ground against the wall in seconds. Rykard managed to withstand the impact, empowering his legs so as not to fall, but upon looking back outside, he saw what had caused the explosion.
Ignite did battle with two others dressed like himself, one in blue and one in green. One of their attacks had missed, but next—that hit Ignite spot on.
The Crimson Knight was flung from the air and off his dragon steed right into the castle, eliciting another shockwave to ring out of the crumbling palace.
Rykard froze in place, face utterly blank and jaw ajar. Had Ignite just fallen?
"Uncle Law, what was that?!" The daughter of the King shrilled.
Rykard didn't turn immediately, still seeming to process what he had just witnessed. But hearing her cries and the subtle trembling breaths of those he was meant to protect, he quickly steeled himself to respond.
He dropped to her side.
"It's going to be okay, Cassandra. I'm not going to let anything happen to you guys."
Oh now? You shouldn't make promises you can't keep.
The voice came to all four of them within the cramped bedroom. It was like everything else had become silent, as all of them were fixated upon the calm, detached cadence of the voice.
Instantly, Rykard's blade bubbled with hot magma, spinning on a dime to face whoever could have entered so easily. But as he moved to slip his blade in their gut, all he was met by was a concussive blast of water that shot him across the room into a wall with enough force to crack it.
He fell lifelessly to the floor as the rest of the Royal Family called for their protector.
No…how is she already here?!
Rykard slowly picked his head up to see the woman in blue standing before the cowering family. His body ached with each second he stared at her, bones having broken from one single attack.
"To think I would be stuck with the menial task of cleaning up remainders of Calirium's royalty…I swear, I'll kill that green son of a bitch another time for it." She said, every word reverberating like a goddess passing judgment.
"Why…Why are you doing this?!" Rykard cried, stabbing his sword down into the ground, trying to crawl towards her.
"Knights like myself thrive on conflict." The Azure Knight declared.
Her blade was then coated in blue soul-like energy, moving so fast that Rykard couldn't have seen it flash about. The next second later, the king and queen's heads were no longer connected to their bodies.
"And if there is no war for that conflict because of Calirium's reign, then there is no need for Knights in this world. That can't happen."
Rykard went numb. All feelings had stopped. He couldn't fulfill his duty, but only one survivor remained.
Rykard could see through the woman's helmet, even though her eyes were shrouded in darkness. She tilted her head slightly to the wailing daughter of those she slain before her—not an ounce of compassion stayed within her soul.
Rykard knew what would come next.
"Please…Don't do this. Not to her! Not to her, Please!" Rykard screamed, reaching a hand outwards to the Azure Knight while on the ground.
She didn't respond. But her sword responded for her.
"Uncle…" Cassandra cried softly.
"I'm begging you, stop—!"
A soft shing! echoed in Rykard's ears.
His body stopped moving; every muscle had lost its energy. His mind had forsaken him—he was broken.
"Consider it mercy." The Azure Knight said, before turning to a motionless Rykard, "And for you."
Four aqua spikes erupted from beneath him, dashing his blood across the ceiling and floor of the room.
"At least you tried to protect them. But a worthless guard is nothing more than a dead one."
She left him there, bleeding out in a pool of his own blood. His eyes didn't leave the girl he couldn't save; his world was now at an end, and he could do nothing more than die along with it.
He was a failure, a guard forgotten that couldn't even do his only job, and he would die bearing that shame, humiliated in his final moments.
Yet, as he lay there, a small, crimson ember traced his body.