The Angelic Code: Chapter 1

by **Weiss Schnee** Thu May 15, 2014 11:08 am

Chapter 1: The Oracle

"Within this text shall be contained the structure of our holy organization, the rules by which we conduct ourselves, and the prophecies that shall be passed down through the generations. We of Cruxis shall always observe the workings of man, and shall never directly involve ourselves. So says The Angelic Code."

Spring. It was a time for the rebirth of the flowers that had been crushed by the unrelenting force the Winter had brought over the past few months. The snow that had fallen melted away into the water that would feed the new seeds that would come to life. The city of Lyon was no exception to this. The springtime seemed to bring a revitalized energy to the sleepy agricultural town.

People went about their daily morning routine, the birds had begun to start their songs once again, and it just seemed to be brighter. There was a girl sitting in the back vineyard of a house picking the ripe grapes and putting them into a small basket. She had chestnut hair that went down to her waist, and she had bright blue eyes. She was wearing a small green dress with tan shoes. She walked up and down the rows of the vineyards, picking everything and anything that caught her interest.

A deep voice called out to her from the nearby house. "Rena! Come inside for a second!"

Rena perked her head up and shouted towards the door. "Alright dad! Be there in a second!" She gripped her basket and skipped off. As she walked into the house, a large muscular man caught her at the back door. Inside was a small kitchen, and the man seemed to be cooking some dinner. He had dark brown hair, the same deep blue eyes Rena had, and a full on beard. He wore farming clothes that seemed to show off his strength even more than usual.

"Rena, how was the crop today?"

Rena put the basket down on the kitchen table and looked at him with a smile. "Much better than last year. Looks like things are gonna go well!"

The man laughed slightly. "Great. But...please don't remind me of last year...that drought almost killed us."

Rena frowned and nodded. She then went back to a smile. "But that doesn't matter, since things are going well. So, was there anything else you needed?"

He seemed to look up in thought, before turning back to his daughter. "Would you like to deliver Ms. Curran's pills?"

Rena nodded. "Uh huh! You can count on me!" She was given the bag containing the pills and ran out the door. Her father waved bye to her as she left, watching as she ran off down the road towards the main part of town.

She ran past the many fields that made up the part of town she lived in, before finally arriving in the square. The square of the town was actually more of a circle. The traveling merchants that came into town usually set up their stalls near the big fountain that marked the center of town. Their colorful stalls seemed to fill the gravel streets with life that just wasn't there during the winter. To the north was the town hall, where the mayor would normally give speeches to the townspeople.

As Rena walked through, she could hear talk amongst the townsfolk. "The mayor said today would be the day, right," said one woman to another. The other responded with a, "Yeah, The Oracle should be happening by the end of the day. I wonder who will be chosen?"

Rena simply ignored the talk. She continued along through the narrow streets of Lyon towards her destination. Along the way, she came upon a particular alley. It was right behind the inn, and was quiet as a dark night.

Rena knew better though, and walked through with her ears peeled. She heard the twang of a bow, and spun around. She managed to draw a knife and slice the arrow clean in two. As the pieces fell around her, she heard an exasperated groan from the nearby shadows. A boy with short bright blue hair came stepping out. He wore more ragged clothing, but he still seemed to be well fed. His orange eyes looked from her to the arrow and back again.

"Why'd you have to snap my arrow Rena!? That was one of my personal ones!"

Rena suddenly looked very apologetic. "Oh no! I'm...I'm sorry! I didn't know!"

The boy walked forward and got her into a lock under her arm. "You know what this means, right? A little punishment!" He mockingly rubbed his fist on top of her head, causing her hair to mess up.

"Gah!" She complained from the lock. She stomped his foot and he let go. "Tsou, that isn't funny! That arrow could have actually hit me!"

Tsou laughed. "Oh come on, Rena! You know me better than that." He patted her on the shoulder. "I was aiming for right by you."

Rena groaned. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been able to stop that arrow! You should think before you just attack me!"

Tsou looked confused. "But how else am I supposed to keep your skills fresh?"

Rena sighed. "I have to deliver some pills right now. Maybe afterward, I'll go with you to the forest and we can do some practice."

Tsou smirked a huge grin. "Great! I'll go see if Argent wants to come with too!"

Rena gave him a look. "You know she is going to want to see The Oracle. She actually cares about who The Chosen is, unlike you."

Tsou scoffed. "Why should I care? It's just gonna be another big shot. Besides...I bet I can go release the seals before he can!"

Rena sighed. "And how exactly do you plan to battle the hordes of monsters and creatures with only your bow? You know what...never mind! I have a job to do!" She began to walk off.

Tsou stood there and sighed. "Alright, fine then. See ya later!" He walked off as well.

Rena continued through the town, and eventually arrived at a small red house on the outskirts of town. It had a rackety staircase that creaked as Rena walked up it. She lightly tapped on the door, and heard some scuffling around from inside.

She only needed to wait a few moments before an old woman answered the door. She had a full head of white hair, wrinkly skin and black eyes. She was wearing an outfit that she clearly wore to sleep, considering how worn it appeared to be.

She almost seemed to readjust herself as she tried to see who was standing in front of her. "Oh! If it ain't little Rena Trivala! How are you dear? How is your father doing?"

Rena smiled. "It's nice to see you too Ms. Curan! I'm doing just fine, just here to deliver your pills. My dad's fine, we haven't had too many patients lately. Guess people are tired of getting sick!"

The old woman smiled. "Well isn't that just great. It'd be a nice world indeed if everyone was tired of getting sick. Thank you for bringing me my pills." She took the bag and placed it down inside. "Would you like to come inside for some tea or cookies?"

Rena sat and contemplated it for a moment. "Not today Ms. Curan. Tsou is waiting for me in the forest."

She nodded. "Ah, that young boy is quite the rascal, isn't he? You do plan to be back in time for The Oracle though, don't you?"

Rena frowned. "I don't really understand what the whole big deal about The Oracle is. Is it really that important?"

Ms Curan gasped. "Good heavens of course it is!" She seemed to clear her throat. "This world is doomed to fall. This golden age of life shall end when the seas begin to rise, and will end with the destruction of all life. The only savior will come in the form of The Chosen, who will receive an Oracle from Cruxis in the end days. They will then go on a journey, and upon their success, the world will be saved."

Rena looked up at her. "That's the prophecy?"

Ms. Curan nodded. "Yes. And we have heard that the seas have overtaken Plavia already. The refugees arrived mere days ago. Thankfully, none of them were harmed."

Rena looked surprised. "So that's who all those people were?"

Ms. Curan nodded. "Fret not about it though child. When The Oracle reveals The Chosen, we will know salvation."

Rena nodded and said her goodbyes. After walking a little ways, thoughts seemed to raise through her head. Wow...I didn't know it was that important...still, the seas rise all the time...it's not really the end of the world, right?

With these thoughts in her head, she ran off towards the forest near town. The forest itself was not exactly thick, but it was still quite a sight to behold. The spring flowers that had begun to grow on the trees gave them all a certain vibrant life.

Rena walked through, listening to the natural sounds of the forest. As she was walking, there was a small creek that was slowly coming into view. The creek had a small cliff above it as it was a small ravine in actuality. Rena skipped across some rocks to reach the bottom, where Tsou and Argent were waiting.

Argent was a girl with short dark grey hair, and equally grey eyes. She wore a small white t-shirt, and slacks. She looked slightly annoyed as she saw Rena approaching. She turned to Tsou. "Now that she's finally here...what are we doing here?"

Tsou smirked. "We're here to train obviously. The Chosen is gonna be chosen today, so we gotta be at the top of our game! How else are we gonna beat them?"

Argent rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious. The Chosen is The Chosen for a reason. Obviously they are the only ones that can save the world."

Tsou scoffed. "That doesn't mean anything! If you wanna do something, you gotta work for it! It's not just handed to you!"

Rena finally walked up to them. "Hey guys! Sorry I'm late."

Argent smiled. "It's quite alright Rena. At least you're here now. Now then.." She turned to Tsou. "What are we going to do for training?"

Tsou smiled. "Well, we are in the forest. I'm sure there's bound to be some monsters somewhere. Let's go catch us a small group and take it out!"

Rena gave him a look. "Taking out a small group is hardly training, wouldn't you say?"

Tsou looked annoyed. "Well...yes...but in this case, it's perfectly acceptable training."

Rena laughed slightly at Tsou's expense. The trio proceeded to move slightly further up the river. As the moved further and further up, Tsou began to move slower and more stealthily. Argent simply continued walking, and Rena looked just plain uncomfortable.

Argent looked back to Rena. "You don't much care for fighting, do you?"

Rena was caught off guard by the sudden question. "Oh....umm. Well, a little I guess. I know the monsters will just attack us anyway...but still."

Argent smiled. "That's a good quality to have. Keep that sacred to you."

Before Rena could ask why she worded it so weird, Tsou told them both to hush. "I found our targets." Rena and Argent looked over to where he pointed. They noticed blobs of blue goo moving around very slowly. Argent stifled a giggle.

"Your idea of a training session is a few slimes?"

Tsou shot her a look. "Look, even great heroes need to start small, ok?! Besides...the bears aren't quite out of hibernation yet."

Rena placed a hand on Tsou's shoulder. "It's ok if you're scared to take on a bear."

Tsou became more defiant. "What?! Scared?! Of course I'm not scared!"

Argent smirked again. "Maybe we should take out our foes before they run away." Tsou turned and saw the slimes beginning to leave the area. Tsou knocked an arrow and aimed. After a split second, he fired the arrow and hit one rather clean in the upper part of it's body. As it started to dissolve, the others turned and saw the person who had killed their comrade.

"Here they come!" Tsou remained back with his bow, while Argent and Rena ran out. Argent brought her fists up and punched one of the slimes back. Meanwhile Rena did some fancy footwork to get behind one and stab it with her knife.

Argent had another slime jump onto her back to attack, but she felt an arrow pierce through it and kill it. She simply smirked back at Tsou. She then slammed her fists together and got into another battle stance.

A small energy seemed to surround her fists as she charged at one. "Triple Strike!" She punched the slime upward and quickly scored two more hits that seemed to be filled with more ferocity than her last strikes. Her enemy quickly dissolved.

Rena managed to dodge a glob of goo that her opponent attempted to shoot at her. She spun her knife in her hand and stopped with it backwards in her hand. She seemed to have a glint in her eyes as she got into her battle stance. "Quick Draw!" She charged forward and jumped over the slime, scoring a hit on the head in the process.

Her opponent quickly dissolved, and she panted slightly as the last of their enemies was defeated by Tsou. Argent walked over to Rena and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "You've gotten better."

Rena nodded. "Thanks. My endurance still sucks though....that was barely that hard of a fight and I'm already tired."

Tsou came walking over with a frown. "Well that's cause you let yourself get hit! If you didn't take as many hits, you wouldn't need to worry about endurance."

Argent smirked. "I'm sure you're an expert in having no endurance and still battling well, aren't you Tsou?"

Before Tsou could once again respond in the defiant, a sudden fierce wind came through the area. The trees swayed back and forth like mad, and the trio shivers slightly as they heard a loud roar accompany the "wind".

Tsou for once looked concerned. "Umm...we need to leave. I think we got enough training."

Argent seemed to be in agreement. "Normally, I'd argue....but I didn't like the sound of that."

All in agreement, they began to quickly tread back the way they came. As they walked along, they heard the roar again, but this time it appeared to be closer. Tsou seemed to tense up as they started hearing scuffling in the foliage. Tsou looked to Argent and Rena and nodded for them to get ready.

A huge boar like creature broke through the foliage and charged at them. Argent braced her hands and grabbed the creature by it's horns. She was pushed back into a tree with quite a large amount of force, but she hung on. Tsou started climbing a tree in an attempt to get a better vantage point.

Meanwhile, Rena drew her knife again and charged forward. She stabbed the boar in the back, and it reeled upward, sending Argent flying.

Argent corrected herself mid-air, and landed on the ground upright. She then charged forward at the boar with her fists raised. "Let's see how you like a Triple Strike!"

She once again slammed her fist into the creature three times, but this time her third punch was an uppercut sending the boar into the air. Two arrows then pierced it's body from the nearby tree. It was not finished however, as it landed and charged at the tree Tsou was on.

The shockwave caused him to fall, where he was caught by Rena. The boar charged once again and smacked right into the pair. Argent ran towards the boar and jumped onto it, grabbing it's horns as if she was going to ride it.

It thrashed about, but Argent remained on. Rena slowly stood back up and flinched at a scrape she had on her knee. She changed her grip on her knife and looked at the boar. "Argent! I'm coming!" Rena charged forward and smacked the boar in the side with her blade. The thrashing hit her away, but the deed was done. It began to bleed from it's face as well as it's side, leading it to be blinded.

Argent took this opportunity to force the boar to slam into a tree, finally killing it. The force of hitting the tree caused Argent to fall back slightly, but otherwise she was fine. The trio looked to the dead boar and panted. Rena had a small smile on her face. "I think...that's enough training for now, right?"

Tsou began to collect himself. "Yeah...that's good...." After collecting their kill, they headed off back towards the city. As they walked, Rena looked to the sky and saw the sun was just beginning to set. Argent noticed her looking at the sky.

"You want to go see The Oracle, don't you?"

Rena looked over at her. "I guess you could say that. I'm curious..."

Tsou scoffed. "All that Cruxis stuff is stupid anyway. I'm prefer to trust my own strength rather than some angels watching over us."

Argent frowned. "I can agree with you on that." she turned to Rena. "If you wanna catch it, you can go on ahead."

Rena looked confused. "Didn't you want to see it too?"

Argent sighed. "I'll be fine. It's not like we won't know who The Chosen is afterward."

Rena sighed. "Yeah. Well, guess I'll head off then! See you guys later!" Rena ran off. Tsou and Argent continued carrying the boar's body towards the city.

Tsou looked over to Argent. "I'm surprised. All you've been talking about for weeks is when The Oracle was gonna appear. I thought you'd be psyched."

Argent looked over to Tsou. "Shouldn't I be saying the same thing to you?"

Tsou chuckled. "Yeah, well.." He sighed slightly as he readjusted himself. "There's no point in getting so worked up about it. We gotta take everything one step at a time, and what's more important to me right now is just getting stronger."

Argent smiled. "Well, I guess if that's good for you. Personally, the only thing I care about is who The Chosen is."

"Oh? And why's that?"

Argent stopped as they put the boar down outside the market. "Because I intend to travel with them."

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Rena ran into the center of town where a large crowd was gathered around a small altar that had been set up. The altar was a small pedestal with a statue built behind it. The statue was modeled after the Godess, Chrimea. Everyone was gathered around, waiting for The Oracle. Their prayers were answered when a blinding light shined throughout the village.

As the light started to fade, a figure was descending from the sky. He was dressed in full regal attire and had pure blue wings. His hair appeared to be long and silver, and he held the presence of authority. As he reached the ground, his sea green eyes scanned the crowd, stopping for a second on Rena before continuing on.

As the talking died down, he finally addressed the crowd. "I am Leonis. As a member of Cruxis, I have watched over this land and it's blighted people for many aeons. In accordance with the prophecies of Chrimea, this world has reached it's end, and we of Cruxis have sought out The Chosen. You can rest assured, we have found that Chosen."

Everyone started getting more and more excited as the man spoke. He spoke with a deep booming voice that seemed to reach out to everyone. "The Chosen sits before us even." He held out his hand and a white glow began to form around it. Slowly, Rena began to raise up into the air. She gasped as she was forcibly dragged upward in front of everyone. She hurriedly covered her dress, trying to deter any possible peeps.

Leonis smiled as she stopped. "Chosen...do you understand the importance of your journey?"

Rena looked around as if he was talking to someone else. "I'm sorry...are you talking to me..?"

Leonis chuckled. "Of course I am Chosen. Now, do you understand the journey you must now embark on to become The Angel who brings Life and Death?

Rena simply shook her head. "I...ummm...was never brought up on the scriptures..."

Leonis nodded. "Then allow me to explain. In this world there are seven seals...each one representing one of the elements of nature. This elements are what keep the world in balance. You must go to each of them, and release the seals. Only then, will you journey be complete to regenerate the world."

Rena nodded. "Ummm...ok."

Leonis pointed his hand of to the east. "The first seal lies to the east, at the edge of the infernos that engulf hell. Offer your prayers in that distant land..."

Rena nodded. "I...will."

Leonis smiled a warm smile. "We of Cruxis wish you luck in your travels, Chosen One..." Rena began to slowly descend as he began to raise into the sky. When Rena finally reached the ground, she felt herself lifted up by the crowd.

"Blessed be The Chosen One!" "The Chosen One is here!" Rena heard these and many more chants as the evening was spent going back and forth from place to place being celebrated as a savior and the hero they needed.

All the while, one thought permeated the back of Rena's thoughts. The single dark thought that reared it's ugly head every time she was praised. I'm no hero....

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