Knights Apocalyptica

It’s odd, to think about that fact that these natural ecosystems around us used to teem with life.

The earth looked far different back then, and both reports and historical evidence show the destruction which occurred following the silver fire.

The thing is, with the introduction of magic, and the appearance of rifts, we’d expect for there to be far more of a rearrange then we’ve seen in the local environment. The fact things are still so bleak, and the destruction is just now starting to show signs of reversal speaks to a sort of contamination that the destructive fires brought.

When they say that the goddess scorched the earth, really, they aren’t even getting close to how much lasting damage she managed to achieve.

The question is then, why some places have been able to see a return to natural life quicker then here?

- Dame Starlest, Local Environmental Report (3rd Era, 289)

It’s a funny thing, collapsing from exhaustion. No matter how many times it happened, it never got any better. You woke up with a pounding headache and a sense of disorientation. Erec was familiar enough with the morning after an exhaustion collapse to guess what happened. The sensation of keeling over after pushing himself too hard wasn’t a new one to him. Though the mist and the odd hallucinations before it had been. Now though, he wasn’t still outside, rotting away to the sun.

Truly, some part of him expected he might have been. That could have been part of the challenge—waking up, utterly spent, and having to deal with the fifth day.

But no, he was in a cozy bed. One with a plush pillow; no IV. And he wasn’t alone either, Garin and Colin were there as well. Both of them still knocked out.

“Awake, then,” Boldwick shook his head. The Master Knight looked tired in his chair; an open glass of whiskey next to him as he stared at Erec. “Well done kid. You all made it through the last day… Rest, you see, is just as important as training. Especially when you push yourself all the way to the brink like you lot did yesterday.”

“…Huh?” Erec asked, still gaining his bearings.

[You’ve been out for sixteen hours. There’s been monitoring and nutrients added to your blood to revitalize you—Buckeroo, I will not approve this training method in the future. Bad enough you must fight to the death again and again. Next time, we will go to a gym, check what is an appropriate amount of weight, then make a plan with plenty of protein. No more of this.]

“I’m sorry for pushing you as hard as I did. You’ve all gone so far, and I am beyond proud of your resolve, but this is your last lesson. Make time for your friends, make time for your rest. Do you think that any of you were in any state to deal with a threat at the end of that? I told you, ‘stop me if you can,’ and yet you stared at me with blank eyes.” Boldwick shook his head and then sighed. “All this training, all of this extra effort is meaningless if you are only in survival mode; to consolidate Strength and really gain milestones, you must balance periods of intense strain with rest. These next two weeks—I expect you to attend your Academic classes, but push no further outside of it. Only after you’ve recovered should you make a measured amount of time for extra training.”

With that, Boldwick leaned back, having said his peace and finished his lecture; he looked at the other two, still fast asleep in their beds.

Despite the words, Erec felt a thrum of pride at what he and his friends accomplished. The progress they’d made in such little time—now, more than ever, he understood. Having people by your side who kept pushing themselves just the same…

With all of you racing toward a goal, it gave you a type of Strength that not even Fury could replicate. A collective willpower that forged together made bonds stronger than that of the most durable steel or titanium.

“What do I do then, if not train? Things are not going well in this Kingdom.”

“Learn what you can, at the pace I and Dame Robin provide—Since I’ve seen, now, and over the past months how close you three have become, it appears that I now have two more additional students to take under my wing. I’ll be the one who tells you when to jump. When to train. You and your friends, however, I will charge with the responsibility to find events and activities to keep yourself occupied and not risk your future through exhaustion from overtraining.”

“Events? Activities?”

“Erec, what month is it?”

Erec scratched his head—it was obvious, of course. “October sir.”

“What comes at the end of October?”

A festival. Sure. There was that. Boldwick saw that Erec understood what he meant in regards to the festival, then shook his head.

“Then after that?”

“November,” Erec stated simply.

“In which is the grand feast—then the month after that,” Boldwick rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“Yule, in December,” Erec still didn’t get the point. It wasn’t like he hadn’t celebrated these holidays before. Everyone did. This time of year was chock-full of traditions and events—the Academy also facilitated some, not that he’d looked into it. Simply put, the perspective of the upcoming conflict made these things have almost no impact. He didn’t care. Ɍ

“Those are the festivities and personal events that you and your friends should focus on. The tournament will be in late January—you will have plenty of time between now and then for training and to enjoy your life. If all you focus on is the next conflict, the next fight, then you miss out on the point of what it is to live; at that rate, you will be no better than the monsters we slay.” Boldwick rolled his shoulders and stared at the other beds for a long time.

[…We would call this a forced sabbatical. Too much work and you burn out; of course, the training manuals only really cover this kind of leisure and mental health nearness for executives and senior researchers. Expectations include turnover at lower job scales. Like I’ve been saying all along, take a rest.]

“Tell me when those two are up. I’ve got early presents for the lot of you—I won’t be far, and Dame Robin is the room over; let her know once you’re good to go.”

Boldwick gave him a long searching look and then turned and left; Erec sat in his bed for a long while, staring at the blank ceiling above him. A tan-like color that reminded him of the sand; while he’d never been here, he began to suspect Boldwick brought them back to the Academy. Most of the initiates would be gone—let alone using one of the recovery rooms.

Most people, unlike him and his friends, wouldn’t have taken this break to push themselves to a point where they shattered. They likely saw this as a welcome reprieve in their training.

Erec did his best to ignore the blinking notification in the corner of his vision. Until he couldn’t. With the soft snores of his friends nearby, he pulled the trigger and willed the information to appear.

Strength: Rank C - Tier 9 → Rank B - Tier 1

Vigor: Rank C - Tier 3 → Rank C - Tier 5

Agility: Rank C - Tier 2 → Rank C - Tier 3

Psyche: Rank D - Tier 3 → Rank D - Tier 4

The numbers floated there. Proof of his training. All of his Virtues had seen massive gains over the past five days—his Strength, in particular, had broken into a whole new Rank; hauling all that weight for so long had been the last little hurdle he needed to cross so he could see that particular achievement.

…As he considered his gains, he realized Boldwick had a point.

How many Initiates over the entire course of the Academy achieved a Virtue in the B rank halfway through their first year?

How many of them even had a Rank like that into their second year or as a Knight Errant?

That was ignoring the rest of his Virtues, which were all boosted to an absurd degree as a byproduct of the constant challenges and growth brought about by Fury.

Frankly, his growth had been nothing short of meteoritic, yet despite that; he never felt like he’d done enough—tackling the never-ending challenges of this dangerous world required Might and Strength untold, and even now, Erec felt afraid of the monster he knew lurked in the dark; how might he face them alone if he did not have the entirety of the Strength to do so?

I’m not alone. Erec looked at his friends, sleeping, and thought of the empty spots at the round table.

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He didn’t need to be alone. Not anymore. But… They couldn’t keep pushing at this pace; his friends and even he would fall apart.

For now we will walk, then when the time is right, run together again.

— - ☢ - — - ☼ - —

It wasn’t until the day after that the three of them felt well enough to crawl out of their beds and go see Boldwick for a review of their training. As Erec suspected, they’d been taken back to the Academy for rest; that made it easy to get from their current location in the depths of the Academy proper back to the Verdant Oak building and to Boldwick’s office.

After exiting the central fortress that made up the Academy, they saw that most of the Initiates had returned. People talked excitedly, drifting about as they got in their groups and discussed the return of school…

Like Boldwick said, though he wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, Erec made out the main focus of the conversations—the tournament and, to a lesser extent, the upcoming Hollows Eve festivities that the Academy put on.

When he was a kid, Erec remembered the tradition. At least, when his mother was still around, he and Bedwyr would dress up, and go from house to house, asking for candy. Adding to that was the annual pumpkin explosion and the cave-maze that they were always taken to.

Growing up, though, after his mother disappeared, those traditions began to filter off and die away. No longer as important in the grand scheme of things. Bedwyr, though, always made it a habit to bring home a bag of candies for Erec, even if they stopped going to the maze or seeing a pumpkin burst. Still, eating chewy taffy with his brother long after their tired father went to bed had meant a lot to him.

“What are your guy’s plans for Hollows Eve?” Erec asked as the three of them followed Dame Robin across the campus on a whim.

Colin looked at him and blinked. “Who cares about that?”

“Whoa, hold on there,” Garin said, looking between the two, “With everything that has happened—I almost forgot about it. We have to do something; maybe we see the Pumpkin drop—or go to a bar down in the caverns? You know, celebrate the way we should be. I was meaning to bring this up.”

Dame Robin chuckled ahead of them as she led.

Maybe it was just Erec, but all of them seemed more aware of the things around them than they had before.

Is this how his Soul works?

“Sure.” Erec agreed, taking Boldwick’s words to heart. This last round of training had brought about insane growth, as promised, but he would abide by the Master Knight’s words.

They could grow quickly. But only so quick.

“Truly? We’re going to celebrate a nothing holiday… Why?” Colin asked, “Especially now, when we must prepare for the tournament? I will shatter that brat of a prince and make him eat his words to me; there is little time to waste with trivialities.”

“You heard Dame Robin,” Erec warned. She had given them the same speech Boldwick gave him once the other two woke up. Though coming from her, the warning was more delicate than the Master Knights had been. The point was clear, as was the fact he’d allotted a whole day to recovery in the regime. Even if Erec was having his own problems grappling with that part of the lesson, he would try his best to make Colin see the logic, too.

“I did, yet I’m surprised to see you agree. We must gain Strength.”

“Does it look like everyone else is busting their asses to the point where they collapse from exhaustion—listen, before this week, I’ll admit. I was scared to explore my powers—now, though, I see potential, and I’ll try. I get what Erec was driving at, but at the same time, they have a great point. You need balance in your life. You can’t go too far either way.” Garin cut in and then turned his attention solely to Colin. “What that means is that you will go your betrothed and invite her out with us. If we’re lucky, Enide should be back by then, too. Triple Hallows Eve date.”

Colin tried to make several arguments, but each fell short and failed to sway Garin.

The plan had been set by the time they reached the Verdant Oak building. As much as it could be, given that the Pendragons were outside running errands for the Kingdom and goddess knew if Enide would be there to celebrate.

[It’s too bad you don’t have cell phones nowadays. I bet it would make planning things with your significant other much easier, huh? Hmm. You know, I wonder if we could lay the foundations to resurrect that particular communication technology… Of course, after your mandatory sabbatical.]

Erec sighed and then lapsed into silence.

The sight of the Verdant Oak building was a welcome relief after all the training. Compared to the time spent roaming and running through the wasteland outside the city, the lush and vibrant greens nestled in the interior made Erec once more feel at home. A certain calming sense came from being surrounded by life—a sense of belonging and peace at one's small place in the world that put things in perspective and let him breathe easily.

Now, as they came into fall and the cold was coming, a lot of the plants were undergoing a shift. Switching to either multi-colored leaves, or for the interior plants, some of them shedding theirs as they braced to go dormant for the winter.

A couple of the caverns below were built to reflect this kind of natural light cycle; for others, it wasn’t necessary.

But it did mean change was thick in the air, both with the season and what was soon to come for the Kingdom.

It didn’t take long to arrive at Boldwick’s office, where Dame Robin bid them goodbye and left them to debrief with the Master Knight—the three of them stood outside the door, eager to go in and talk to him but filled with a sense of levity and respect that it meant.

Bursting the bubble, Erec took charge and led in.

Boldwick was reclined in his chair—it was as his office always felt lately. Put together and complete, organized with notes tucked away and buttoned up to look professional. A natural state lately, but there had been a time when it fell apart. Now, though, it seemed the Master Knight had everything together. A feeling that gave Erec a small sense of relief, given all that had been happening.

Aside from the usual decor, there were three wrapped packages—loosely covered with brown parchment paper and then tied with twine. The biggest was beside his desk—almost the same size as it. Next to it leaned another package—clearly wrapped many times, which obscured its shape to the naked eye. Lastly, there was a small parcel shaped like a rectangle on his desk.

“Welcome.” Boldwick settled back, his eyes scanning them. “Let’s keep it short and sweet; I’m sure you’ve already had enough of learning for the month with our training. I promised you a reward for completing what I’ve put you through, and I’m a man of my word. As much as the training and the gains from it are rewards themselves, we must always take notice of special effort in our Knights and divvy out rewards appropriately. The Yule celebrations have come early. Before that, though, I have to say, I am proud of each and every one of you. The three standing before me are assuredly different. If you maintain course, I am sure that we will see incredible Knights out of all of you.”

All of them gave him nods—and he invited them closer, to the desk.

The first one to receive their reward was Colin. It was unceremoniously delivered as Boldwick took the small parcel wrapped in paper on the book and tossed it at him.

The noble hesitated.

“Open it. We’ll do this in order of smallest to biggest.” Boldwick prompted.

Like that, Colin unwrapped the thing. Inside was a leather-bound book, the sides of the pages inky. As he opened it, Erec made out the front page: ‘Property of Sommers Able.’

Colin scowled and tried to push the book back onto Boldwick’s desk, only for the Master Knight to reject it.

“Take it.”

“I’m taking nothing else from that foul-mouthed old man.”

“There are few with as inventive of a slant in their use of Mysticism in the Kingdom. Save for perhaps Dame Morgana. But if I had to guess, his unique approach to tackling magic and the way he makes his glyph formations will be far more useful to you than anything that woman can teach. You’ll find that this old research tome of his goes into great depth as he wrote it he mastered his craft. Use it. You don’t have to like him to steal his research and make it your own,” Boldwick waved away the complaints. The suggestion of stealing his secrets made Collin shut up, but Erec noticed that his hold over the arcane book turned a lot greedier.

Next, Boldwick nodded at Erec to come over. At his approach, he shoved the large package—though not as large as the big box—to Erec.

With confusion, Erec began to tear away the thick parchment paper. Shedding through it as fast as he could to get the attention off him again.

What was left behind, was an axe.

A beautiful axe, not like the black war axe he’d been using for ages, which, while a handy weapon, had already seen the results of too much conflict. This was an almost silver-like damascus, making fire-like waves on the blade. Yet it wasn’t Damascus; the color was too light for that. This was a type of metal unfamiliar to him. Yet the shape wasn’t. No, this had been crafted in a similar style to the wicked-crescent-shaped axe that came with the silver fire. Though it lacked the etchings of a stag and a woman on the side…

Moreover, when Erec touched it, a small shudder ran through him. The weapon felt more than just a weapon; it felt like a missing limb.

“Whoa.”

“You’ll find this one is responsive to magic—Though Dame Morgana assured me that the properties that let it channel mana are similar to that of the soul if you give this weapon enough care. Given what happens with Fury, a weapon like this is far more suitable to you than what you’ve been using.” Boldwick answered.

“Responsive to magic?” Colin asked. His eyes lit up to a golden sheen, and then he let out a soft, ‘Ah,’

“…Care to explain for the rest of us?” Garin nudged him.

“It’s a magically conductive metal and inside of the layers of metal and glyphs to further enhance those properties. I’ve seen stuff like this in the King’s palace—or used by some heads of noble households. And of course, more advanced Knights. A weapon like that costs a fortune. How fortunate, indeed, to receive a specially made weapon while I receive the old forgotten notebook of a bitter old man.”

“I can return the notebook to Sir Able,” Boldwick offered.

“No, this is fine. I just wanted tin can to appreciate just what you were handing him.”

Erec turned the weapon over in his hands; it felt light. Far lighter than his old axe, to the point where he was wondering how it would hold up in battle. But given that Boldwick had handed it to him of all people, he must be confident in its durability.

With reverence… Erec held the axe and dipped his head; “I swear to do good with this weapon.”

“Mhmm. Try not to go too wild with it from the start. Weapons like these take a little time to adapt to the user over time; let it get used to you slowly before going all out.”

Boldwick then turned to Garin, raised an eyebrow, and gestured towards the largest package in the room.

“Well,” Garin said, walking over—able to take a few steps around the package; Munchy moved around on his shoulder, chattering and anxious as they approached the gift. “My little guy doesn’t like it much, to be honest.”

“Jealousy is to be expected. Go ahead. Open it.”

Garin did just that after giving him a weird look; as the bits of packaging paper flew aside, they were treated to the view of an animal crate. Within which was a curled-up… Dog?

No, it was not a dog. Its ears were far too pointed. It was leaner and more wild-looking than any mutt Erec had seen, legs longer too, in proportion to the rest of its body. This one had deep golden eyes and a grey strip running down its back.

Munchy was flipping out at the sight of it.

Coyote.

They were said to live in these lands rarely if one encountered them. It used to be their natural habitat until the Goddess took away most of what made natural natural with her silver fires.

Right now, the coyote was staring deep into Garin’s eyes, its ears alert and head cocked to one side.

“It’s about time you added another companion, don’t you think?” Boldwick said.