As I've Written/Amphoreus' Saga of Heroes.exe/Chapter 10

1-1

▶ ▶ Among the soldiers, there was the famed city-state...
Kremnos,
a place every warrior longed for.

▶ ▶ To be crowned champion of the Kremnos Festival
was an honor that only the cream of the crop could attain.

▶ ▶ "There's no glory to be found in an accolade only obtainable through slaughter."
A man blocks my way.

▶ ▶ His name is...
Mydeimos,
crown prince of Kremnos.

1-2

▶ ▶ Despite being a man of few words,
news of his deeds had traveled far and wide.

▶ ▶ His tale is an extraordinary one,
they say.

Cast off a cliff by his father at birth,
he plunged into the Sea of Souls and drifted for nine years.

▶ "Huh, he managed to survive all of that..." "Even the god of death turned him away."

▶ ▶ An immortal body.
A gift bestowed upon the man.

As with every other Chrysos Heir in Amphoreus...
A blessing, yet also his curse.

1-3

▶ ▶ The taciturn man is seated at the table,
expecting me to break the silence.
Before us is a cup, filled to the brim with a crimson liquid.

▶ ▶ People considered it a Kremnoan tradition,
to sustain their bodies with fresh blood.

In popular legends...
every body on the battlefield was taken.

▶ ▶ "Arrogant amateur historian."
He sees straight through my pretense...
His gaze as keen and piercing a lion's.

▶ ▶ "This is pomegranate juice."
The man scoffs.

1-4

▶ ▶ The reason it's called a wild tale,
is because Castrum Kremnos has long vanished.

▶ ▶ When their god descended into madness,
the city likewise became shrouded in fog.

▶ ▶ Rumor has it that during the final battle of Castrum Kremnos,
this man, too, took to the battlefield.

▶ ▶ Cutting down countless foes, fighting in a sea of blood,
he drove his spear through the heart of the enemy king—

▶ ▶ Yet the tip of that spear...
was directed at his own homeland.

1-5

▶ ▶ A chatter breaks out among the people,
and the man rises to leave.

▶ ▶ The truth of such rumors,
he speaks only through his distant silhouette.

▶ ▶ A silhouette of a body that has withstood endless trials and faced death innumerable times,
but bore not a single mark.

▶ ▶ Mydeimos, a hero of yore..
Now a traitor to Kremnos,
the patricidal crown prince.

2-1

▶ ▶ Since which day,
Did he become known as "Mydei"?

▶ ▶ His strength rivals all lands,
But the man pays it no heed —

▶ ▶ For only the authority of a king can end another king,
And only strife can end strife.

▶ ▶ The torrent of conquest crosses the barrens,
Yet with homeland's blood, it is destined to be stained.

2-2

▶ ▶ None dare to shake his hand in greeting.

▶ ▶ For his hands burn as the blazing sun,
Soaked in the might of the flames.

▶ ▶ What a mighty feat it is —
In the aftermath of defeat,
The man digs graves for the deceased soldiers,
Burying thousands with his own hands.

▶ ▶ In that fight...
He crushed all invading blades with his fists.

▶ ▶ A body immortal may never fall,
But tears of pain in his heart still flow.

2-3

▶ ▶ "His years of drifting made him detest water's waves."
They say, that is the reason he's so unwilling to weep.

▶ ▶ But in Aidonia's blizzards he once did cry,
A tear shed among the storm and frost,
That bloomed into a lily stained with blood.

▶ ▶ Like his undying body,
The flower never wilts.

▶ ▶ In time, the entire world will turn to ash...
This haughty man shall be,
The one to leave behind the world's final beauty.
Though none are willing to believe.

2-4

▶ ▶ Unlike his kin,
Those patterns are carved with his blood.
A matter so suspicious,
It stirs the ambitions of the mundane.

▶ ▶ "A blade that can cut through the mighty must be enough to slay gods."
The people to this day still seek it,
Yet it is simply a tradition he follows closely...

▶ ▶ Do not let your enemy notice that you're bleeding,
And thus convince them,
That you are someone unsurpassed, a warrior supreme.

2-5

▶ ▶ The stories of the past forged his body.
"Apart from Kremnos' traditions, what do you have left?"
The white-haired friend once asked.

▶ ▶ The man goes silent and still,
His gaze burning into the horizon, looking for a distant past.

▶ ▶ In his days of wandering, this same question,
Was asked by thousands upon thousands,
And he never denied —

▶ "That is why I walk on this path."

3-1

▶ ▶ None may approach that battlefield.
The lone army of Kremnos, an obstacle on the Flame-Chase Journey.

▶ ▶ He ordered his troops to stand aside —
That was the first meeting between hero and prince.

▶ ▶ The two men fought for ten nights unceasingly,
Till the combat drew to its end.

▶ ▶ Neither was able to score a single victory,
And conceded not a single defeat.

3-2

▶ ▶ None know why this man's fate,
Is always overshadowed by a single number decreed.

▶ ▶ Just like how none can ascertain,
How the Flame-Chasing heroes
Convinced this man.

▶ ▶ It was not mutual appreciation. Nay.
For in his memories,
Seven sentences were all his mother to him ever spake.

▶ ▶ Yet somehow, that leader who weaves the golden threads —
Recounted one of the seven with ease.

3-3

▶ ▶ There is no right or wrong in the man's heart.
"The lion has its own historian."

▶ ▶ "And the history of the hunt should not be held by the hunter alone."
And thus, he speaks little.

▶ ▶ Others once guessed,
He regards the holy city as his home,
For he seeks a land to belong.

▶ ▶ As the king to his people,
It is the first gift to them he brings.
But as per the rule with gifts —
Once given away, the gifter will never re-possess this thing.

3-4

▶ ▶ The journey is long,
Yet none ever dares to anger the man.

▶ ▶ Not because of his unrestrained manners —
But because every meal the heroes partook,
Were all cooked by his peerless skill.

▶ ▶ One's sight serves falsehoods in the woods.
He has relied on scent since young
To distinguish guests and obtain gains.

▶ ▶ Yet there are always exceptions —
The man's archenemy often puzzled,
Why their food always borderline nauseating.

3-5

▶ ▶ He still recalls the day he entered the holy city —
One who worships strife,
Is bound to have rumors rife.

▶ "Even insects consume each other, and he's no less than the Mad King's kin."

▶ ▶ It matters little,
For the man always considered himself an enemy to the world.
He paves the road so that one day his peers,
Would match his anger within.

▶ ▶ Yet, until the prophecy turned true...
None in the holy city,
He ever did ruin.

4-1

▶ ▶ "To die for glory is not eternal sleep —"
This is a lie all Castrum Kremnos keeps.
"The world after death is superior to reality and basks in light."

But such vague poems the crown prince would not easily believe.

▶ ▶ "Cowards who dare not to look death in the eye..."
He declared thus on the day he returned from the stream of souls.
"Longing for a martyrs' heaven and reciting self-deceiving stories..."

His words are sacrilege reincarnate,
More arrogant than his blood and family —
"True warriors should treat that paradise with spite."

▶ ▶ Many followers thus stop,
No longer following his steps.

For they feel this young man's words,
Compared to poems, are even more absurd.

4-2

▶ ▶ A body immortal,
Equals not "perfection."
The man braved dangers endless,
Simply to seek his weakness.

▶ ▶ In his greener days
With more amateur skills,
In crises where death denied him even after kills,
He learned why "curse" is a synonym for "blessing,"

For he saw that visage of terror
at life's closing.

▶ ▶ The man seems unmoved
when this past is mentioned.
Having braved death nine times,
He who was once lacking,
Now excels above everyone else, still rising.

▶ ▶ Yet,
When asked if he's still as ticklish as when he was a child,
He does not answer.

4-3

▶ ▶ It's a wild tale he won't care to opine —
It's said that Castrum Kremnos has secrets divine,
Through which the king's power has passed,
A one-man army, by strength in their bloodline.

▶ "Therefore, a traitor who does not inherit the throne,
Is a king most infirm."

▶ ▶ As the protagonist hears these words,
He refutes not, but openly responds:

"These are not rumors unfounded."
"But will they matter if my deeds eclipse those of all other kings, achieving glory beyond?"

4-4

▶ ▶ "Never turning back in war, he seizes all our glory."
That rumor in the war camp of fury,
Often casts a shadow on the man's heart, indestructible and fiery.

▶ ▶ When campaigns become mired in terror,
He sends his army to places safe and secure,
Yet alone he goes to fight, knowing death can touch him ne'er.

▶ ▶ The Kremnoan Detachment who follow him in livery,
All die in bed, devoid of glory.
They have their share of grudges upon death,
But the man has no regret, none necessary.

▶ "Your glory lies not in death but in my hands."

4-5

▶ ▶ The dust settles,
And Strife calms.
A deathly quiet covers his father's realm,
And the man alone returns home.

▶ ▶ A question seems to sound, from shadows of the past around —
"Did you already walk that Flame-Chasing Road, O King?"

▶ ▶ Atop the throne,
The man mutters alone —

"There's nothing else worthy of the hunt,"
"For I am the blazing fire at the journey's end."

▶ ▶ As it has been foretold,
He killed the king to become a king, and killed the god to become a god.

His eternal destiny — is to be crowned in blood.

5-1

▶ ▶ As always —
To perceive the man's fury,
One must do so seven thousand paces away.

▶ ▶ The Kremnos he guards
Is once again shrouded by mist.
Rust, blood, and fire
Are the ceremonial ode to the demigod.

▶ ▶ There is no one to witness or to give cheers of glory,
The final Kremnos Festival goes on without end.

▶ ▶ The victor shall embrace death and silence,
And his glory
Will only be remembered by the defeated array.

5-2

▶ ▶ For that man,
Laws and seals no longer have meaning.

▶ ▶ War and battle never cease for a single minute.
Each passing day indistinguishable, morning and night entwined.

▶ ▶ The corpses pile up,
Filling ravines, forming mountains strong.
He carved time with peaks' edge,
And counted the fleeting years by fires of war.

▶ ▶ Sometimes,
The lion would climb to the hilltop
To look down on the world and search for friends in longing.

▶ ▶ The distant heavens and earth stretched vast and boundless,
But their endlessness felt ever more remote.

5-3

▶ ▶ Like Nikador,
He cannot escape madness's clutches.

▶ ▶ Guarding the city alone and embroiled in war,
The murmurs of the black tide constantly sound in his ears.

▶ ▶ Yet a flame soars up his chest every moment,
Casting light upon the indomitable path behind him.

▶ ▶ Memories seal the echoes of the past,
As the man strides into battle, fists clenched fast.
He is the wound this world must bear,
The new king before whom old gods despair.

5-4

▶ ▶ As stated in Aidonia's poems,

▶ ▶ Humans are born with eyes closed
To accustom to this world's light,
And their sight fades in old age
To reacquaint with night's anthems.

▶ ▶ But the man did not bow to the decay of time,
Rejecting the lure of death's call.

▶ ▶ With each return from the brink of death,
His eyes burn with fury, fixed upon his foes,
Until everything suddenly faded away,
Like a surging black tide swallowing all into nothingness.

5-5

▶ ▶ The world dissipates in the roiling black tide's requiem.

▶ ▶ Even the lion will one day die,
A departure with no way back.

▶ ▶ With a sudden fall,
His pierced chest hits the ground
And slowly flowing into the underworld
Is his golden blood, departing his system.

▶ ▶ But that gaze, fierce as flame,
Never dimmed, not even in death,
Looking beyond those flame-seeking figures
Reaching far toward the endless horizon.

▶ ▶ In the morrow's sky, the stars will chant:
The lone king of Kremnos is called Mydei.

His journey was one of ceaseless, eternal warfare,
And behind him, he left a world ablaze with glory.