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~ Chapter 1 ~

The Infamous Farndale Slaughter


The sky was brimming with activity as the start of spring rolled its way into Farndale. Blue birds and soft, fluffy clouds lined the sky, floating in from the western plains with streams of sunlight highlighting their most intricate features. The first day of spring was always lively, and the citizens of Farndale were in high spirits, as per the norm.

The market district buzzed powerfully, merchants from the four kingdoms, and the many villages that spotted Izania Plains, were lined up to trade in the wonderful city of Farndale, looking for the best deals, and the most plentiful wares. The city was the cornerstone of the entire continent, sitting in the center of what most considered to be the four most powerful nations in the entire world, acting as the primary trading hub for anyone with enough coin to pique the interest of the rich, or vaguely well-off.

Of course, Farndale was also home to some of the poorest, and least prepared people in the continent, namely, the vagabonds and fools that considered themselves adventurers. Truth was, none of them really left the borders of the massive trade city, not for more than a day, anyways. The Izania plains were a dangerous place for the unprepared if you strayed from the main paths, after all. But among the cowardly and boastful chumps, there were a few prosperous individuals that held potential. Felix was one of those few, an orphaned boy who called Farndale his home, and took any chances he could get to speak with the real adventurers that passed through on a daily basis. Dwarves, elves, humans and even some of the less prosperous races like the Yevin and the Orcs. It was always a variable bunch, and many of them were always willing to part with advice or stories of their travels to those who were willing to listen.

Felix found himself headed for the local adventurer's guild, where his old pals, Durwith and Lorges were bound to show up. Today was the first day of spring, after all! Dwarves practically flooded Farndale to get a taste of the seasonal mead that would be sold over the next few weeks.

Honey Dew Brew.
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Felix walked through the streets of Farndale towards the local adventurer's guild as he had done many times before. He greeted everyone he knew as he passed them. And as he knew many of Farndale's residents, Felix had greeted many people by the time he'd reached the guild hall. Felix entered the guild hall just in time to find the 1st flagons of Honey Dew Brew being sent out to the dwarven adventurers who had flocked to the guild to drink the coveted mead.

"Good morning, Felix" a familiar voice said.
"And a good morning to you, Juniper" Felix replied as he turned to face Juniper, the guild master's wife and the keeper of the guild's bar
"If you're looking for Durwith and Lorges, they're sitting by the window they threw that orc through last spring. Probably bragging about it now as we speak" Juniper said before giggling as she remembered that day "I was just bringing them their drinks".
"I can take them" Felix offered "I'm looking for them anyway".
"Ok then" Juniper said before handing Felix the drinks she was holding "Thanks Felix".
"No problem" Felix replied as he took the flagons and headed of to find his dwarven mentors.

Felix found Durwith and Lorges exactly where Juniper said they were doing exactly what she said they would be doing: Bragging to the guild master's 10 year old twin sons about throwing an orc through the window they were sitting next to. "Good morning both of you" Felix said to the dwarves as he placed the flagons on the table "Care for some mead?".
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Durwith turned away from his fellow Dwarves and smiled ear-to-ear, more happy to see Felix than the mead that he so generously carried over to him and Lorges. Lorges on the other hand, rushed out of his chair and snatched his drink from Felix's hand with a happy grunt before promptly guzzling it down like the gluttonous fool that he was. The pudgy little Dwarf turned to Durwith with the mug still held to his mouth, ignoring his judgmental gaze as he shrugged and continued drinking.

"Felix! It's been quite the while, aint it, boy? How've yeh been?" Durwith chanted, shooing off the elves and Dwarves that surrounded their table with curious ears. Several glanced at Felix, but payed him no mind. Many knew him as the overeager little humie, and nothing more, but Durwith and Lorges knew better.
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Felix chuckled at what passed for Lorges as a greeting as the dwarf took the flagon and chugged his drink down greedily. Lorges had always been a dwarf of few words and great appetite. As a result, he sometimes came off as a bit rude. But Durwith had always assured Felix that Lorges wasn't trying to be rude and that he was simply very thirsty. "I've been alright" Felix said in response to Durwith's question "I've been practicing the way you told me to when you were last here. I can safely say that I've improved greatly. I can't wait to show you".
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"Show me?" Durwith chortled, stepping towards Felix slowly, "Haha, as much as we'd love teh' see your improvements, we're here on business, believe it or not!" Lorges nodded and slammed his mug against the table. Durwith shook his head and sighed. "Gotta guard a shipment of the brew, all the way back to Helgar! The Dwarves back home aint so keen on coming all the way here to Farndale for a drink, so this year there was one hell of a major order place to have five o' those 500 gallon Kegs delivered to our city's front gates!"

The front of the guild bustled with activity as Durwith spoke. Lorges looked over, but didn't pay much mind to the newest visitor. Some masked fellow with bleach-white hair made his way past the crowds as carefully as he could. Seemed like a wimp to him, especially considering the guy's thin frame and narrow eyes. Was it an elf? Feh, who cared, anyways! Lorges was already more obsessed with the idea of lunch. Durwith took one look at the mask man, but also disregarded him. The guy's tightly fitting white vest and chain-mail pants screamed rogue. Those guys were never to be trusted.

"We might not even have much time to enjoy ourselves now! Shipments bound to head out in the next hour, but we've got time to talk!"
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The fact that Durwith and Lorges weren't staying for long made Felix a little sad, but not sad enough for it to show on his face. He wasn't surprised that Helgar had decided to bring a few thousand gallons of Honey Dew Brew to their gates though. In fact, Felix was shocked it took this long for the dwarves to get the idea!

Felix suddenly noticed his dwarven mentors looking at someone across the room. He followed their gaze and quickly caught sight of the masked man carefully making his past the crowds. Felix became slightly uneasy. Masks weren't usually a good thing outside of festivals that masks were affiliated with.

When Durwith started talking again, Felix turned back to the dwarves as his unease melted away when he realised that no one would be foolish enough to try making trouble in the adventurer's guild. Not after what the guild master did to the last fool who tried. "Well at least we have time to talk" Felix said happily "How has the road been treating you? Not to roughly, I hope".
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"Rougher than usual," Lorges suddenly grunted with his raspy, battle-torn voice. The Dwarf told tales about how he lost his boisterous battle cry in a battle with a fire mage. Well, in one iteration of the story, it was a dragon, and in another, he was poisoned by a prostitute... No one really knew why his voice was so messed up, but nobody really cared, either.

"Yeh, these days the roads have become a little more perilous than in the past. With the rising tension between the kingdom of Jorgon and the Elven capitol, the southern half of the plains have had numerous ehm.. Outbreaks of violent behavior. Rogues are taking advantage of the discourse, looting villages and attacking adventurers left and right, it's a right mess. On top o' all that, there's rumors that some masked fellar's been burning down libraries on the opposite side of the sea. Fortunately, that aint anywhere near here, but the sudden loss of tomes has been affectin' the trade between the two continents pretty severely. People think that's what caused the whole kerfuffle between Jorgon and Elioss in the first place.."
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"Not a good time to be on the road then?" Felix said as he tried to suppress the pang of unease caused by the rumors that a masked man was burning libraries and the fact that there was a masked man in the building and the guild just so happened to have a library. "Hopefully all that trouble clears up by the time I turn 20" Felix said "I wouldn't want to be murdered by rogues or get trapped in a burning library on my 1st adventure". Felix caught a glimpse of the masked man out the corner of his eye. He tilted his head slightly to get a better view of what he was doing. Felix was now feeling more and more uneasy with each passing second.
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"Anything but," Durwith snorted, "I'm sure it will all clear up by the time you're ready, m'boy! And I promise I'll be there to see you out!" Lorges nodded silently and sat back down at their table. Durwith noted Felix's distraction though, and couldn't help an unsatisfying bubble rise in his throat. The little Dwarf let out a mighty burp, jostling his dual war hammers, and nearly tossing himself off of his chair. Some Dwarves were prone to such... Rude gestures whenever they were nervous, happy, excited, or.. Well, feeling anything at all, really. Lorges snickered and pounded the table, waving over one of the waiters with his stubby little hand.

The masked man from earlier looked to be turned around, almost as if he was lost. To the left, and to the right, his less-than-threatening 5-foot posture twisted, just barely peeking over the short Dwarves that flooded the Guild hall like rats, until he noticed Felix, fixating his own feverishly narrow eyes on the boy, for longer than what most would deem comfortable. The strange man's pale composure turned completely towards the table where Durwith and Lorges sat, and with small, meticulous steps, the stranger made his way towards him. The closer he got, the more apparent it became that he was not from any of the surrounding kingdoms. His apparel was strange, far too strange for any human from the Northwestern kingdom. His vest looks as if it was fused to his skin, revealing the bottom half of his abdominal muscles, and the upper sections of his chest. His pants on the other hand, were outright unsettling. Chain mail? No, the metal wasn't jostled or making a single sound. The white, almost silver-like fabric that seemed to hold it together, looked more like an extension of his skin, with the chain-like patterns criss-crossing in and out of his leg muscles. Nothing about the man was normal. Even his slicked back hair, white as the clouds in the sky, lacked any definition. It was more like a helmet than anything. Durwith noted his approach as the strange man grew closer, finding himself in the same spot as Felix when his truly alien design made itself apparent. Lorges didn't pay much attention to anything, though.

"Besides, I'm sure the rogues would have quite the difficult time dealing with your swordsmanship, Felix," Durwith spat, trying to pull his attention way from the peculiar man. But within moments, yet another strange visitor made himself apparent near the entrance... Or was it.. Another? He looked exactly the same as the first, from the snow-white hair, to the peculiar garb and concealing mask. Durwith swallowed hard and looked for the guild master, who was nowhere to be found.
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"I did learn from the best" Felix said in response to Durwith saying any rogues he encountered would have a hard time beating Felix. He'd barely registered what the dwarf had been saying though. Felix had been more focused on watching the masked man approach slowly from the corner of his eye. Felix became more and more uneasy with each step towards him the masked man took. Once the man was in speaking distance, Felix turned to look at the masked man directly. Felix was caught off guard by how unnatural the man looked. He was caught even more by a 2nd masked man entering the building. Felix didn't like this. Not 1 bit. "Can we help you?" Felix asked the 1st masked man.
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"Can I help you?" The man responded in a shrill, almost otherworldly voice, "Help me? No, why would you help somebody like me? Hey you!!" The man spoke his last few words while spinning towards the back of the guild hall, where yet another look-alike was hanging from one of the support beams with one of his hands digging into the wood like it was as soft as butter.

"Yes, me?" It responded, looking to the other look-alike that had entered earlier.

"Am I bothering myself? What is it?" He responded.

"Over here!" The man in front of Felix shouted.

"Over there?"

"Over where? Where I am?"

"Yes! Where you are!"

At this point, most of the adventurers in the hall had grown silent, observing the peculiar triplets that were scattered throughout the hall. Durwith rose from his seat, along with Lorges, and eyed the intruder carefully. "Felix, get back," He mumbled, drawing one of his two mighty hammers. The white-haired masked man tilted his head to one side curiously.

"Oh? He's not here," The man paused pointing to one of his identical brothers, "for you or you!" He finished, pointing at both of the Dwarves. "Or perhaps they are? For all of you, we are!"
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Listening to the 3 masked men speak to each other quickly muted Felix's unease and soon replaced it with a mix of confusion and amusement. But the unease returned when Durwith told him to get back an drew 1 of his hammers as Lorges rose to join him. Durwith was a good judge of character. So when he said someone was trouble, that someone was trouble. Felix rose from his seat and backed up a few paces. As he did so, Felix looked around in hopes that he could catch a glimpse of the guild master. 'The commotion these guys are making must have caught his attention' Felix thought to himself 'Where is he?'.
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"Yeh best start making sense, or gettin' gone 'fore you end up in a world of hu-" Durwith was stopped mid-sentence, silent and unable to speak another word as something interrupted him.

"Oh? We're sorry, what was that?" The masked man said. From Felix's point of view, he could not see the man's midsection, but Durwith dropped his hammer and staggered forwards, revealing that something had begun pushing against the back edge of his cloak. "Speak up, speak up! This is only a fifth, my other parts, I, they, we cannot hear you!" Slowly, a bladed tip slid through the back of Durwith's cloak, shining a lustrous silver and coated with the Dwarf's blood. "Hello!?"

"Oh, you got him!"

"Ah, I'm rather good, yes?"

"We are, aren't we?" The man in front of Durwith said, retracting his blade. Durwith fell forward and slammed against the ground, atop his hammer. But when the masked man was revealed, he was not holding a blade. Instead, his right hand was covered in blood, and his eyes were fixed on Lorges, who stood near Felix in Shock. "Ah, you two, the Dwarves who've been tasked with the load, yes? I'm sorry to say, but I've been tasked with your, well, execution! Though, two deaths-" Lorges didn't stand by to listen to the man's nonsensical ramblings, and immediately drew his great sword, slicing at the man from above while he haphazardly explained himself. But Lorges' blade, although striking the man's shoulder dead-on, sunk only an inch into his flesh. The skin around the impact point seemed slightly metallic, and the man only paused for a moments. "-Two deaths? That's no fun!"

At that point, an explosion sounded from outside of the guild, following by a flurry of screams, opposite to where the two Dwarves and Felix were positioned.

Lorges looked towards the westward window, but the masked man stepped forward and grabbed his neck, sliding his metallic shoulder along the entire length of the Dwarf's blade, until his forehead met with Lorges', and their eyes were mere centimeters apart. All the while, the guild leader was nowhere to be found..

"Oh, silly me, we've yet to introduce myself!"
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Felix just stood there, transfixed by shock and horror. 1 of the masked men had just ran Durwith through, an explosion had happened outside that the masked men possibly had a hand in causing, and now the masked man who had stabbed Durwith was strangling Lorges after the dwarf had tried to strike him down only for his sword to be stopped by what seemed to be the masked man's skin turning to metal. Felix couldn't understand what was going on. Who were these people? Who were they working for?* And most of all, why had they been sent to kill a pair of dwarves over the fact that they were shipping a few thousand gallons of mead?

*If they really were working for someone.
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Lorges struggled, but was unable to free himself. The pale-haired man's mouth curved up, slightly visible behind his tightly fitting mask, and he turned his eyes towards Felix. "Oh?" In an instant, the man dropped Lorges, and stepped over him, firmly placing one of his feet against the Dwarf's ribcage before landing closer to Felix. "What have we here? a little one?"

"Ah yes, he's a curious one, like that big fellow I split in half!"

"Hah! He had a bit of magic in him, that he did!"

"Boy, who are you?" The masked man questioned, as his two twins descended upon the adventurers that flooded the bar. By now, they knew these visitors were no joke. Men and women of all races, mostly Dwarves, surrounded the rogue-like monstrous men, and clashed against them with steel and bronze, looking to take down the unwelcome foes with due diligence. The crowds made it difficult to see the other two masked men beyond the one that had disabled Durwith and Lorges before Felix, as the third had jumped down from his perch above the crowds. "Speak up! I only have ten ears!"
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Felix felt his stomach knot when the masked man who had attacked Durwith and Lorges looked at him. If the man could bring down people as tough as Durwith and Lorges, Felix was fairly certain there wouldn't be a lot he could do to save himself if the man decided killing Felix would be a good idea. When the masked man asked for Felix's name and told him to speak up, Felix complied without hesitation. Although he wasn't sure how having 10 ears made hearing more difficult. "It's Felix" Felix replied, raising his voice so he could be heard over the fighting and screaming.
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"I don't care about your name!" The man shouted, closing the gap between himself and Felix, "That sword, that soul! Where in the world did you come from? This miserable little kingdom has brought few that meet any significant criteria!.. Ah, but what am I wasting my time for?" The man's arm rose, and began to change in color and shape, until it was shimmering like newly polished steel. His arm was a blade, unlike any Felix had seen before. Magic?! Magic was rare among the adventurers, and coveted by royalty! Who the hell was this?

"Kill him!"

"Run through him!"

"Night night!" The masked man whispered, rising his hand and dropping it towards Felix with a slight delay.
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In that moment, as the blade arm fell upon Felix, something was roused from a long slumber by the boy's impending doom. In an instant, Felix left his body, that which had been awakened stepped into what was left, Felix's eyes began to glow with a grayish blue light, his sword was in his left hand despite the fact that he had never even reached for it, and the masked man's blade arm was skillfully caught between the blade and cross guard of his sword with a movement that was almost to fast for even the sharpest of eyes to spot. "Seriously?" said the being who now inhabited Felix's body with a voice that was very different from Felix's "I could understand why he was doomed enough for my intervention to be needed the last few times. But this small fry? This must be a joke!". Having said that, the being thrust the palm of Felix's right hand forward. The palm made contact with the masked man's chest, creating a large shock wave that sent the masked man flying to the other side of the room. The being paused a moment then, and examined Felix's right hand. "Ah, I see now" the being said as he looked at Felix's sword "I've been passed on again. Well, if this is what passes for impending doom for my new wielder, at least my next few fights should be over relatively quickly. Alright, let's get this over with so I can go back to sleep".
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The masked man flew across the guild, over the masses below him who, one by one, fell prey to his duplicate allies. They tore through them easily, forcing many to retreat, but when the first crashed against the westward wall, and fall to the ground, the immediately stopped their slaughter and turned to observe, leaving many to retreat unharmed. In moments, the three clone-like masked men were left alone in the adventurer's guild with Felix, or rather, whatever had taken control of Felix's body.

"My oh my. I felt that!"

"He sure did a number on me!"

"That he did!"

The launched clone stood up and brushed splinters of wood from his body, looking down to his stomach, which now sported a rather frightening series of cracks along what appeared to be an extension of his metallic body. But, within moments, the cracks sealed themselves, and his vest reformed. This was no man, it was a monster.

"What what? It speaks on its own, does it? Fully in control? Rubbish!" The masked man shouted, walking forward and standing between his two clones, "I'm shocked and appalled that you would even think yourself a match for me!"

"He does sport a particularly cocky demeanor, doesn't he."

"You don't much care for it."

"You couldn't agree more, myself!" The center man stepped forward and gazed upon Felix with his glowing white eyes, curiously scanning the boy. "I suppose I'd best slaughter you now, lest your master finds providence in steel. Gaze upon me and utter your final breaths- Not that I care!" A moment later, the windows behind Felix burst open, and two more masked men rolled to surround him from both sides.

"Outnumber and overwhelm!"

"Strength in unity!"

"Peekaboo! Prisma's here!" The initial clone of Prisma shouted, charging forward with his bladed are still at the ready, and aiming to impale Felix.
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"Outnumber and overwhelm?" the being currently in control of Felix's body said as he effortlessly sidestepped Prisma's attack "That's your strategy? Well then, luckily for me, I have a counter for that: Divide and conquer". With that said, the being held Felix's sword aloft which caused it to glow the same grayish blue the Felix's eyes were showing. Moments later, the glow guttered like a burnt out candle. "Oh that's right" the being said as he lowered his sword "My new wielder isn't as powerful as my last 1 yet. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to take the higher ground instead". Having said that, the being ascended to the guild's upper levels with a single bound. "Come on up, Prismo!"* the being called "Let's see how much of you your regenerative capabilities can replace!".

*This is not a typo, the being actually mispronounced Prisma's name.
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