Relics Of The Past

The Clover Kingdom's day started off with a gloomy sky and a cold wind sweeping through. The familiar warmth of the morning sun was nowhere to be felt, yet the day started off as normally as it could for the Golden Dawn's Light mage.

Droplets of rain started to fall from the clouds and they stained the common room's large, glass windows. The sound of each little droplet was clear to hear, but then an even larger sound was heard with the doors to the Captain's office flinging wide open. It was Captain William Vangeance and Vice-Captain Langris Vaude getting ready for the morning briefing.

Then, Vangeance stepped forward.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you are all well today. Despite the weather outside, we have a number of jobs and missions for most of you here". The masked mage then stepped back and allowed Langris to proceed.

"You guys heard the Captain, so first of all...", the Spatial mage flicked through his documents and listed what the squad would be doing. One by one, he told who would be doing what and then the callouts came to Yuno.

"Ah, the newbie... you, Klaus and Mimosa will be escorting Salim Hapshass, the nobleman, to his home. Apparently, he's feeling wary about travelling home by himself and has requested an escort. This will be your first mission that goes outside the Royal Capital so be careful. Klaus and Mimosa are there too to show you the way". Langris smirked. He then turned to Alecdora.

Lucas was there wondering if a mission would come his way soon. "I helped with the patrol with Yuno and I feel like I've improved with my magic... maybe I get to go on one?" He hoped, and as he did, his wish was answered.

"Alecdora. You, Letoile and the other newbie... Lucas. There's a new dungeon that has opened up near the town of Kikka and it's rumoured that there are some important treasures there. Just remember, that town is near the border between our Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom so conquering the dungeon is a top priority for us. I assume you three can handle it", he then folded his documents and stepped back.

"Woah... my first proper mission and I get to go all the way to Kikka! I can't wait...", Lucas screamed internally. His wish was answered, and he couldn't wait to start the mission. "I don't know Alecdora or Letoile too much, but I need to get over my nerves!"

Everyone was relatively happy or excited with their impending missions. There were many smiles to go around, especially where Lucas was considered. However, there was one Senior Knight that wasn't happy at all.

"Gah! Why do I have to be with that stupid peasant? What is so great about him anyway?" Alecdora gritted his teeth. He turned around to Lucas who didn't notice his staring and he just looked at him with disgust. "Hmph".

An hour or so passed since the morning briefing with all the Golden Dawn squad members. Lucas and Yuno exchanged a few words of encouragement with each other and then they separated and went on their ways.

Lucas was flying on his broom with Letoile just alongside him, while Alecdora was lagging behind and not looking at the Light mage in the slightest. The strong winds were breezing past them and the trio were on their way towards the entrance of the dungeon. Though they tried their best to get to the destination quickly, two of the members were in the midst of a nice conversation, slightly slowing the group down.

"So, Lucas. How has it been this first week? Have you been making any friends?" Letoile asked with a smile.

"Oh... um yeah it's been good! Y-Yuno was my first friend but then Mimosa too... A lot of the Senior Knights have been nice too with David, so I think it's been good!" Lucas responded with a chirpy personality.

With a continued smile, she responded. "Well, that's good. Funny you haven't mentioned me though... have I not been nice to you?" The Compass mage winked.

Lucas froze but then realised she was joking. Though the Light mage was still getting to terms with being around more people, he did begin to joke around with them too and understood their jokes in return. "Haha, of course I didn't forget you! You've all been great to me and Yuno".

Letoile simply responded with another smile. "Lucas reminds me so much of my little brother... I wish... ah never mind. I try to keep up my mature demeanour but It's too hard around him, oh well", the Compass mage thought. Her smile slowly receded into a slight frown as she thought about her little brother.

The two continued their conversation for the majority of the trip towards Kikka, whilst Alecdora continued as he was just behind them.

The day was nearing to its afternoon phase and yet, the sun was nowhere in sight. The clouds still covered the skies and the droplets of rain still fell down to the floor. The trio of Magic Knights had made it to the opening in the side of a cliff, just outside of Kikka and made their way towards it.

When suddenly...

A flash of lightning zapped past and hit a tree right next to Lucas who jumped and screamed. The burning-hot flash made it so that the tree set on fire with the leaves melting away. Then, another problem started to occur with the group being able to hear thunder all around.

"This is not good. Follow me you two", Alecdora ordered Lucas and Letoile. After using his Sand Magic to distinguish the tree's flames, the three made their way into the dungeon via the opening.

"Just what was that?" Lucas asked. He was wary about what just happened.

"It's probably nothing... but maybe it's a sign for us to not enter this dungeon!" Letoile slapped Lucas's back and scared him in the process.

"D-Don't say that!" Lucas scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment at being scared, but it was understandable why he would be. The weather seemed to get extreme right at the point of entering.

Alecdora was at the back just watching the two interact with one another and was questioning what was happening. "Just how did Letoile, a noblewoman at that, become friendly with that peasant? Tsk".

The Sand mage's questions were justified to an extent. The Compass mage would usually be more composed and justified around people, especially new faces, but here she was defeating that perception about herself. Unknown to him though, there were reasons as to why she acted like this with Lucas. The Senior Knight didn't bring it up however, and instead carried on.

"Okay you two, listen to me. We have no idea about what could be in this dungeon. There could be enemies, monsters, traps... Our goal is to find the treasure and bring it back with us". Alecdora then lead the other two as they started to traverse the dungeon.

"Alecdora... he seems nice. I thought he was quite mean before, but I guess that was just me being nervous...", Lucas thought as he looked around the area he was walking through.

The start of the exploration had nothing of importance. It was a simple hallway that got a bit tedious with everything looking the same as each other. Each ceiling, floor, and wall they saw was the same suggesting that there was nothing of importance here. However, once the trio got further into the dungeon, the area started to change a lot almost instantly.

"Wow, I've never seen tiles and slabs like these anywhere else", Letoile peered her hands across the dusty walls and columns that she was near.

The surrounding area went from, essentially a cave setting, to a more luxurious open space. The cobblestone area transformed into a marble area instead. The overall structure was still in ruin, but you could tell that the inner dungeon area had life to it once. It seemed like this are was part of a civilisation before.

"Hmm, these bricks... they're marble, and they have some golden patterns embroidered within them. It seems like this area belonged to some type of ancient civilisation that were really rich or well off. Still, this area gives me a slight unease...", the Sand mage commented.

The Golden Dawn members all began to look around to see if they could find anything of use or any information about what this place really was. Alecdora and Letoile looked hard all around but unfortunately for them, it seemed like most of the letterings and text were completely ineligible. However, that fact was quite different for Lucas.

"Now, what can I find here...", the Light mage spoke to himself. He peered his hands over the dusty marble bricks to the side but couldn't find anything of use. He was about to give up but then realised that him brushing his hands against the wall managed to unearth a few letterings and text from behind the dust that was laying on them. "Oh? This isn't any language I'm familiar with... yet, I can read some parts of it. Hm...".

The text read...

"Here resides many treasures and ... that once belonged to our ... the high- beings...

The ones who ... the Elves were ...

The only treasures that ... exempt ... reside elsewhere are ... Mikaela ... former high-ranked ...

Follow ahead ... more"

"Woah, what on earth? How can I read this?" Lucas took a step back and tried to collate his thoughts about what just happened. Whilst he was reading just a second before, his heart started beating quickly.

As Lucas was recovering from the shock, the other two mages appeared from behind him and started to speak.

"Hey, you. Did you find anything worthwhile or did you stop to take a rest?" The Senior Sand mage asked, with a tone of disgust.

"Hey, leave him alone", Letoile responded, backing up Lucas from Alecdora's rude questioning.

"Excuse me? Need I remind you that Captain Vangeance appointed me as Team Leader this mission, so what I say goes. Now answer me, brat", Alecdora demanded.

Lucas, now calmer than before responded. "Sorry but I didn't find anything. Though if we walk a-ahead then we might g-get some more information".

"Hmph. How would you know that? Regardless, lets go ahead and see what this place has to offer".

This time, Alecdora lead the way whilst the other two walked behind. Letoile noticed Lucas's odd behaviour so gave him a slight pat on the back to cheer him up slightly. The Light mage replied with a little smile.

As the three walked through the hallway, the small light in the distance became a huge one and almost blinded the three squad members. With each of them having covered their eyes with their arms, they slowly retracted them and were met with a sight that seemed like it was out of this world.

"Statues? There's so many of them... and they were here this whole time?" Letoile stated as she corrected her glasses. The surprise of what she saw left her surprised.

As the hallway ended, the three were out in a large and open area, even bigger than the last. The marble theme continued all around and there were still cracks and broken pieces everywhere. This entire dungeon seemed to have been lost to the ages for more than a thousand years it seemed like. Furthermore, the main focus wasn't even the large, open area, but the huge statues that towered over the mages. There was one to the right, and one to the left, whilst the other ones were smaller and stood in front of them. The big statues had their arms pointed forwards as each hand overlapped the other. All of the statues in the room looked humanoid to an extent, however, there was one common similarity with the two huge ones. They had two, large, white wings.

"This place is truly unique... there's even a strong sense of mana all around", Letoile added.

"You're right... this mana, I've felt it before, but I honestly don't know how...", Lucas mentioned. Letoile clocked in on the fact and looked surprised yet concerned about him. "Why do those statues have those huge wings? Are they some sort of deity's or something?"

"Hey, what did you mean by tha-", the Compass mage started, but stopped as she realised what Alecdora was doing.

The Sand mage had started to act on his own and walked up to the statue on the right. It looked like there was something in its hands, and he was right. There looked to be some gold or some type of treasure in its palms, and Alecdora was the first to act.

"We came here to retrieve treasure for the Clover Kingdom, and that's exactly what I plan to do. I don't waste my time becoming friends with that peasant over there so excuse me while I-", as if on cue, to stop the Sand mage's rumblings, a quick magic spell was fired towards the Senior Knight who had managed to grab onto the treasure in the statue's arms. However, that spell wasn't from Letoile or Lucas, it was from...

"The statues! They're not- they're golems and they're moving... it must be s-some sort of defence system!" Lucas shouted. Though that warning was futile as the magic spell that hit Alecdora had sent him flying into a wall behind causing him to faint instantly. The gold and jewels that were in his hand fell neatly into his lap.

"Alecdora!" Letoile shouted, though she didn't have much time to process what was going on as another attack from the smaller statues had started to be charged up for another attack. Fortunately, the Compass mage was alert of the danger and managed to dodge the spell. "Argh, there's no time to plan a strategy. Lucas, you probably haven't had enough battle practice, but can you do it? Can you help me defeat them?"

Lucas was ready to go. With his grimoire out and in his battle stance he responded. "Of course! I'll do my best".

"That's what I like to hear! Okay, there's four of these golems so you take two and I'll take two", Letoile then charged ahead, whilst Lucas did the same.

Letoile ran, jumped, and skipped and she managed to avoid a few of the golems' spells. "Rock Magic, huh? I should be able to do this... Compass Magic: Useless North!". As she summoned her spell, the sharp needle started floating next to the user. "Okay, well I guess I'll let loose with this spell. Attack!"

On cue, the needle pointed forwards and rushed ahead to hit the rock golems head on. With a sharp noise, due to the needle tip hitting the hard surface of the statues, it manage to scrape some of the outermost armour that surrounded the statue's body.

"Nice. If I keep going like this then it'll be fine".

Lucas watched Letoile like a child watching his idol, he was amazed at how she could be so commanding and strong at the same time. "I gotta help by doing my part. Light Magic: Angelic Strike!" Lucas rushed forwards, in the same way Letoile did, ran, jumped, and skipped past the golem's Rock Magic attacks, again in the same way Letoile did, until he was up to one of them face-to-face. "This is the end for one of you...", Lucas swung his left fist which opened into a flat palm right at the end and caused the first golem to disintegrate.

As Letoile fought to the left of Lucas, she took a quick glimpse of what Lucas was doing and was happy. "He literally copied what I did... and made it his own. This kid is a fast learner". The Compass mage then focused again. She managed to destroy one golem quite easily but the second one was faring to be a problem with the magic it started to use.

Letoile looked above her and saw that the golem was controlling multiple pieces of rocks within the air. The remains of the first golem had been compressed into stone and were floating in the air, ready to fall down on Letoile.

"Damn it. If only I had a spell that negated magical effects in my space... ah well, I can't think about that right now". Letoile carried on with her battle.

Lucas had already defeated one golem and was about to destroy the other golem. "My Angelic Strike can defeat this second one too and, if need be, I can then help Letoile out". Lucas ran ahead once more and mirrored his previous moves. He closed in and was ready to defeat the golem, but then managed to see what was happening with Letoile.

The floating rocks started to fall and Letoile was trapped with no escape. She stopped moving and just looked above. "I made a mistake...", she muttered.

"Oh no you don't! Light Magic: Energy Whips!" Lucas used his left arm and formed a whip of pure and bright light energy that he then grabbed on to the end of. With a few flicks of his wrist he managed to generate a strong force within the whips themselves that then flicked back and destroyed the falling rocks that were heading for Letoile on the ground. "I can't let you die here...!"

After a few seconds of Lucas pausing his battle and using the time to save Letoile, he succeeded. Letoile opened her eyes and saw that her golem opponent lay defeated, whilst the falling rocks overhead, had crumbled and fell as dust.

In the back, Alecdora had awoken a few seconds ago and saw what was happening, yet he couldn't move his legs. "Damn it... I was too careless but how dare that peasant steal the spotlight! I'm supposed to be the Team Leader and here he is showing me up... the nerve!"

The Compass mage turned to face Lucas, ready to say thank you to him for helping her out. Yet, she looked in dismay. Lucas had helped her out, but it looked like his golem opponent was inches away from hurting Lucas.

"No!" Letoile reached out towards Lucas. Her breathing started to become irregular and her heart started to beat faster. Her eyes started to then water.

FLASHBACK - 5 YEARS AGO:

"Oh, come on Lewis! It will be fun if we explore a little. Mom and Dad will never know we were away!" Letoile spoke to a younger boy than her. He had bright orange hair that trickled down into a knotted ponytail to the side.

"Big Sis, Letoile... we were told not to venture out too far and now we're in some random cave", he responded back with a pout. His bright blue eyes looking at Letoile.

"You may try to act mature, but you're still my little brother. We'll be back in five minutes max!" Letoile smiled at Lewis.

"Oh, fine! Five minutes is the limit", Lewis responded.

The two explored the cave they found themselves in and saw a bright light in the distance. It seemed like there was treasure in the end of the tunnel and the two siblings chased the source.

They reached the destination and saw a little pocket area where there was a dip in the floor. In the dip was mountains of gold and silver and the two siblings were excited to say the least.

Lewis bent down and picked up a gold bracelet he found. "Haha look Sis! This looks like it would fit you perfectly!" He looked to Letoile who was busy digging in the treasure mountain.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Let's quickly take all of this back with us!" Letoile was busy with her own goal of acquiring the treasure.

"Y-you're not listening! I think this bracelet would look beautiful on you!" Lewis repeated again.

"Oh, shut up! Yeah, I get it, but we need to take this treasure back with us. Then I can listen to you all day long...", the green-haired girl shouted.

Suddenly, there was a drop of the bracelet and the sound rattled against the other treasure and jewels that were on the ground. There was also the sound of a liquid, dripping onto the floor.

Without looking, Letoile commented on the fact. "Oh, come on. Don't throw your toys out of the pram and stop your crying. Here, look what I found for y-!"

Letoile turned her face and saw where her brother stood, or where he used to. To the side of him, was a golem with a red hand that had looked to have attacked Lewis, her brother. On closer inspection, the golem didn't actually have a red hand, but his hand was actually covered in a red substance.

"L-L-L-L-", Letoile couldn't even bring herself to mention her brother's name with what she saw in front of her.

The golem turned its attention onto Letoile, but she couldn't react. Her eyes fixated on the scene in front of her.

Lewis's body was on the floor, with his arms removed. The golem had sneakily attacked without the two noticing. Letoile's eyes watered and she drifted out of consciousness due to the severe circumstance. However, not before she saw one last thing.

Her brother's arm next to her, with the hand grasping the golden bracelet.

FLASHBACK - END

With her eyes watering, she remembered the tragic event of what happened five years prior. "That day was the day I stopped acting like an immature brat. I stopped having fun and became who I am today. I started to act like the noble I should have been back then... but I also stopped being myself. Lucas, you remind me of the good times I had with Lewis... and I will not let the same happen again!"

"Compass Magic: Needle Storm!" Letoile's grimoire flickered through the pages and started to write a brand-new spell within. The mage's tears rolled off her face and with a quick pointing of her finger, the new attack spell charged forward and severed the attacking golem in half.

Lucas hardly even realised what was happening. Only five seconds ago he saved Letoile but now it looked like she returned the favour immediately. He looked to the side and saw the golem in half on the floor. "Oh, nice work Letoile!" He cheered.

Immediately, Letoile rushed in for a hug. "Thank God. Thank you, thak you, thank you... thank goodness you're alright, Lewi- Lucas...". Letoile realised what she said and corrected herself, much to her embarrassment.

Lucas felt her embrace and didn't question it at all. In fact, he got emotional too, slightly. After a few short seconds, the two composed themselves.

"Lucas... do not tell the others what I just did", Letoile spoke seriously, with a wink, wiping her tears as well with her hankerchief.

"Oh... um sure, haha!" Lucas realised that if this was spread, the other members would not let her live it down and so he complied.

"Well... lets get Alecdora and return anyway. We found the treasure and discovered something crazy too!"

"Yes, lets head out".