back on the road, spectral legion
' You know cub, that's the fourth woman you leave crying, first it was poor little Luna, next was Ana and your mother now Iris, honestly you are starting to resemble apollo more and more' Sarabi said. 'hehehe he is, isn't he?' apollo chimed in. 'That's not a good thing apollo, honestly if it wasn't for father, you would have been torn to pieces by the girls back home' Vitani said dousing his flaming ego. 'Well, the cub is maturing into a proper lion, he could have as many women as he wants and if some get their heart broken in the process then we can only blame fate' apollo said getting dirty looks from the two lionesses.
'C'mon guys settle down, well meet them again' Leonel said only to get annoyed huffs from the two lionesses. A tail picked him up and put him atop apollo, 'ignore them cub, now then I say we work on your physical strength, that last match was quite the eye opener for us all, had you relied on your strength a bit then you would have won' apollo said as they stopped moving and Leonel got onto the grass below them. 'I think it's time to begin training you in combat arts and techniques to augment your style instead of relying entirely on mana or spiritual energy, first we begin with...'.
Time passed quickly on the road; Leonel sent every single day training under the three under an intense regime. The mornings were reserved for Sarabi, afternoons for apollo and the night for Vitani. Pain was all he knew for days on end, the simple trip across the cities took even longer, a full year passed and out of all the cities he only visited four of them. Every time he stopped at a city, he was informed of someone chasing behind him by the Carian Hall, but he paid it no mind. Another year, he spent it training under the sword singers of the war sanctum.
They focused entirely on skill and finesse and his style was anything but. Thanks to his time there he mastered the Gundyr style to its fullest as he refined it and streamlined it to its fullest even adding in several moves. On his way towards the dragon communion church a glint stone dragon stopped him yet all it did was stare at him before it took off back into the skies. A weird occurrence but again he pushed down the confusion building within him as he reached the dragon communion church.
There he found out his absolutely atrocious talent in incantations all except for two. One was glint stone breath yet much to his and the bishop's confusion what appeared was not a dragon but a lunar lion with glistening white fur. The second incantation was dragon manifestation where he was supposed to summon the soul of a dragon and momentarily fuse with it allowing him to partially form whatever limb from the dragon for an attack yet whenever he did, so the lion showed up yet again thus a new incantation was born. He spent another year there honing his glint stone abilities and incantations fusing them into one creating what he could only call the gleaming beast form.
He left after that, every month was spent fighting or training with little time in between. two years passed by in the blink of an eye, atop an island off the coast of caelid four figures could be seen. A pride fought evenly against a single figure. In front of the pride stood an ethereal like snow white lion, larger than the three it stared them down with a hint of mockery in its eyes. "So... do I graduate from being a cub?" a deep regal voice asked. 'Hah as if cub, this form is but the first stage for us, SEAL RELEASE' apollo said.
"There's a seal upon your souls?" he asked in confusion. " Yes, there is cub, it was put in place to limit the power we drain from your soul in order to not hamper your growth, I guess now is a good time as any, your base strength is already far above ours and releasing our true power would only help you grow faster' Sarabi said as the blue flames upon her entered her body. The same happened for apollo and Vitani, cracks began to form upon their forms until a fiery explosion ripped the area where they stood apart. What once was a crystalline lioness now was an amalgam of blue flames in the form of a lioness, several tails formed behind her licking at the ground leaving fiery burns behind.
What was once a large muscular lion, now double the size, towering over them a large red furred lion stood proudly, musculature covering every inch of its beings as fiery cracks formed all over it letting out heat hotter than the sun. Vitani changed from a simple shadow into the void itself as she stepped out from darkness itself. illusory rippling muscles packed quite the strength. Claws as long as long swords perfect for rending anything that dared to stand before her. Around her an intense mist formed obscuring her form before disappearing as she tested her powers.
"Mhmm I'll have to practice and get used to it, either way this is more than enough, I'll be leaving first goodbye cub you know where I'll be" she said before fusing into the air itself. " I'll leave as well, your training is done, and someone had to protect the lion's den, go deal with the star scourge cub" Apollo said in a deep voice as the very air trembled at his presence before he leaped off the island and landed on the beach sending several tons of sand flying, his heat glassing the sand below him. " It's just us two again cub, c'mon I'll explain everything on the way" Sarabi said enjoying the sound of her voice and he, enjoying the peace and quiet in his mind.
Suddenly he felt intense pain overwhelm his head as his knees slammed onto the stone below him. he struggled and heaved before his head faced the skies as the stars above him revealed themselves. Visions played within his mind, the shattering, the fall of Caria, the death of the nobles and people within Caria manor, the establishment of immortality leading to madness, the war of demigods and... the return of the tarnished. He saw it all before the stars disappeared back behind the veil placed by the star scourge, tears dripped down as he stood up.
"No" is all he said before he passed out as Sarabi picked him up in worry. days later he awoke in a cold sweat gripping his throbbing head. " Take it easy cub, a vision is not an easy ordeal to go through, it has not happened yet, take solace in that cub" Sarabi said as she entered the cave, he was resting in. "I... I saw it, the destruction of all I love, what do I do Sarabi?" he asked as if soulless.
"... in truth cub... the shattering is inevitable, it will happen one day whether we like it or not, what you do to prepare for it is up to fate, do what you do best cub, fight" she said as flames licked at his face warmly. a cerulean glow returned to his eyes as stars returned atop him and twinkled before leaving. "You... are right" he said before he stood up and donned his armor, he stepped outside and snapped his finger. Within the large plains before him spectral warriors of all manner appeared before saluting him.
Banished legions numbering near the hundreds bent their knee, a large swathe of mercenaries and warriors bent their knee, hundreds of bandits did the same. Barbarians and dragons all bent their knee awaiting the call of their slayer, their lord. "The red lion and his red maned legion must fall for the good of Caria, I need a commander from each legion to report to me, caelid must fall to us or we will face ruin" he said as he slammed down his halberd before the thousands of warriors.
Sometime later the clashing of weapons could be heard outside as the spirits trained with one another, although but simple souls unreturned to the Erd tree, under a powerful spirit tuner they came back to life in all but flesh, all for their lord. surrounding a hastily made round table several figures appeared. The spectral knight commander Oleg stood beside Leonel as they inspected the maps before them. Across them, bandit champion Garm, knight lance and finally Kaiden chief warrior Björn.
"We need to secure the villages near limgrave first and foremost lest the war spills over their side my lord" knight lance said as he inspected the west most part of caelid. "Agreed, we also need to take some of their forts, fort Gael and Faroth are key strategic points in the lion's army, should they fall then their army is left without sturdy walls" Oleg said. "The army will respond quickly; we need a couple of legions to act as buffer lest we get attacked from behind in the act" Björn said. " Agreed, I will take the banished legion and hold them off alongside the dragons, although I hate to leave the rear to bandits, I can't trust them to hold off a well-trained legion either" Oleg said.
"We're dead tin can, no bandit cares about gold now, just do your job and well do ours" Garm said with a small scowl. "Enough, we don't have long before the shattering, it will probably happen during this war, for that very reason we need to focus, Oleg do as you said, keep them off our backs, Garm I leave the rear to you and your boys do treat the people well as they are mere bystanders, Björn I task you with the front as their spear I myself will join it" he said finalizing their first meeting. They stepped out to see the spirit warriors slowly morphing their equipment from their shoddy leathers they wore in life into plate and chain by using their soul energy.
summoning this many was indeed taxing on Leonel but thanks to training under Sarabi every single day he did not hit bottle necks which slowed down or even stopped his advance in the spirit tuning arts. In truth he was several times better as a spirit tuner rather than a glint stone knight, but spirit tuning was more of a support thus he only used it sparingly. This size was nowhere near the size required to fight the red lion's army on equal grounds but as they fought and killed his army would only grow and assimilate equipment turning once weak bandits into a legion of strong knights.
Such was the way of a spirit general, another reason they were hunted down in the past as each one of them can summon thousands of warriors with ease. Horses were formed from soul energy then created into an artificial soul the soldiers could use which only added to his strength. Like this the spectral legion split, the bandits headed for the west and the rest for the east. The bandits under the command of Garm met little resistance and whatever was killed only fought for them in the end.
Villages fell, their guards cut down and changed for spectral warriors although no villager was harmed even when they rebelled. Soon enough Caelum was before the sights of the spectral legion. the city was stormed with lightning like speed as the legion breached the walls and dyed the streets red in red mane blood. Iris watched one of the bandits approach the manor as she held onto her necklace. the bandit, a hulking man simply stopped before the gate and knocked politely. She was quite confused but ultimately exited against her mother's wishes.
"Lady Hoslow, I apologize for this ordeal, my lord Leonel has deemed the red lion a threat and thus his legion of spectral warriors has been tasked to take caelid and wrest the control of the stars from the red lion, he told us to not harm a single civilian and to take care of you and your family once we reached Caelum, again a apologize for the smell of war" he said as he bowed low. Iris disregarded the entire reason and even the fact that her fiancé declared war on an entire nation, her eyes shined happily. "Tell me, how is my love?" she asked as she pulled him inside for a round of interrogation as the city burned around them.