The Winter of 8Bittia


 * Note that this story is not necessarily canon with Regius Sapphirus's canon or whatever you'd call it

Chapter 0 - A Little Backstory
Three hundred years ago today, soon after the defeat of HellfireChimera, the clan of Regius Sapphirus discovered he was but one of many beings, evil as they were ancient and powerful, that ruled tyrannically over the realms in which they resided. These beings were known as the Dark Elementals, the strongest of which were: Ventalus, the unrelenting wind; Sigmis, the devouring flame. Vaperim, the chaotic sea; Ceranius, the thunderous destroyer; Granium, the towering mountain; And Psyilus, the distorter of minds. SapphireCoyote, the leader of Regius Sapphirus, sent six teams to destroy these beings and liberate the realms, but little did he know his attempt to save the realms doomed his clan.

Over 250 years passed, and not a single one of the teams SapphireCoyote sent to fight the Dark Elementals had returned, nor sent word back to Regius Sapphirus. SapphireCoyote had assigned to those teams all of the strongest fighters, and most trusted co-leaders, he had in his clan. And in those two hundred years, against all odds, not a single member of Regius Sapphirus showed promise as a new leader when SapphireCoyote suddenly fell ill and died within a few days. And rather than leave the clan to someone he wasn't sure could lead it well, he left it to no one. So Regius Sapphirus was thrown into chaos, unable to decide on a new leader, when they were overtaken by the various clans that rose to power in its waning days. Kralereth returned almost a decade after this, victorious from his mission (those two hundred years had only been about thirty for him, though, due to the difference in time stream between the dimensions). He attempted to bring back Regius Sapphirus, but the other clans that were dominating the land feared what Regius Sapphirus could do if it was restored to its former glory, so they banded together and destroyed what little he had rebuilt. Kralereth, ashamed, went into exile, never to be heard of or from again in part due to the wars that then started between the clans making the spread of news very difficult.

Finally, fifteen years ago, when I had just reached the age of ten (don't ask why I was adventuring around the globe at that age) I found the place where I have lived to this day: The (former) RS Mage Temple, and now "Grand Archive of Magic", it is here that I have studied and immersed myself in magic for the past fifteen years while recording the history I have just relayed to you. Today I see on the horizon a fleet of steel-clad warships, armed to the teeth and sailing towards the Archive at a considerable speed.

Chapter 1
It was a cold winter morning, I had gotten out of bed a few minutes before dawn to watch the sunrise, as I normally do in the winter when the sun rises late. After I was done watching the sunrise I made my way to the central tower to examine the perimeter before continuing on with the day, per my usual routine. In the central tower, rather than a system of security cameras, there is a magic orb with which you can merge your consciousness in order to see, and travel through, a sort of three-dimensional "map" of the Grand Archive. I placed my hands on the orb, merged my consciousness, and entered the map. I took a moment to appreciate the beautiful architecture of the Grand Archive of Magic that I normally overlooked. A three-quarter circle wood port lay before the entrance, the mouth of which faced south into the glistening open sea, and the north end merged with the island on which the Archive itself was built. Enclosed by the elaborately decorated inner walls with the courtyard before it filled with flowers and trees and a large marble fountain in the center, and with the floating ivory towers with their conical roofs above, securely holding the more powerful magics. The main library was in the shape of a semicircle, the flat side merged with the surrounding wall and the middle of the curved side held the doorway, with a small square porch before it and an awning above that. Covering the north, east, and west sides was the outer wall, which was in fact not a wall, but a crescent shaped mountain peaking at the north and waning down to the south end of the island on the east and west sides. After admiring the architecture, I moved on to scanning the perimeter and to my terrible surprise I saw a great fleet of metal battleships on the horizon.

I was somewhat shocked. I'd never actually experienced a security threat to the Archive before, though it certainly had numerous security features. I deduced that at the speed they were traveling they would arrive in about fifteen minutes. The fleet was traveling in a "V" shape, similar to migrating geese, with the base pointing forwards towards the Archive. At the base point of the "V" was what I assumed to be the command ship, which was clearly larger and better armed than the other twelve warships, six on each side. All of them were armed to the teeth with heavy artillery, more than enough to destroy the Archive completely, and each presumably held a large amount of infantry as well. I exited the central tower's surveillance orb and activated the Archive's protective force field, I then made my way down to the main library to review a few spell books before I went out the South Gate to stand just behind the edge of the force field and see that the fleet was only about a mile from the mouth of the port.

"Well," I said to myself, "I suppose I'll finally get to use the magic I've been learning these past years..." I took a firm stance and a deep breath, a rune circle appeared under my feet as I shouted, "Sword of the colossus: I summon you!". This caused an enormous sword-more than three times the length of any of the warships-to fall from the skies and strike down the command ship before it could even react to what just happened. I used my magic to move the sword, uppercutting the entire right side of the fleet before it shattered from the onslaught of artillery from the other half of the fleet.

I sighed from relief, and took out my notebook. "Powerful, but fragi-" I said under my breath as I wrote the same thing down before being cut off by the deafening explosion of artillery against the force field just in front of me. I quickly made my way back through the gate and to the fountain at the center of the courtyard, well away from the unimaginably loud explosions. I couldn't focus with that kind of cacophony, nor could I see past the cloud of smoke produced by the explosions. The shield was weakening, and the remainder of the fleet was no doubt closing in on the port, I needed to draw away their fire, and fast, so I did something truly stupid. I ran. I ran out the gate, out the force field and along the coastline of the island. Or at least, that's what they thought I did. The illusion shattered as soon as the artillery fire caught up with it, but it lasted long enough for the real me to take a position on the wall above the gate, where I activated the enchantment I had put on the port. The water in the port rose nearly a hundred feet into the air, forming a colossal hand that picked up all the remaining fleet in one swoop and crumpled it into an almost unrecognizable hunk of metal, which it then threw a great distance beyond the horizon. The hand then collapsed back into the ocean and in a few minutes the water had settled back down to its normal level. Though not before I, myself, nearly collapsed from exhaustion. I had used a great deal of my magic.

After much time resting in my bedchamber, it was now nearing sundown, and I decided that I should get a good night's rest before I worried about where they came from and what would happen next. I thought it somewhat strange. It was safe to assume that they were after the hundreds of spell books contained here, but never had there been an attack on the Archive before. In fact, it was surprising that they even knew about it. The Archive was well out of the way of any trade routes and far from any largely populated towns. Additionally, the warships weren't marked as belonging to any clans or nations. I decided that I should worry about such things tomorrow, so I went to bed.

~

BOOM!

I was awoken from my sleep by a thunderous explosion that knocked the door of my bedchamber off its hinges. I quickly jumped out of bed, only to be met by a sword pressed against my throat and soldiers armed with assault rifles and wearing full suits of armor encircling me. The soldier holding a sword against my throat stepped to the side and sheathed his sword so I could see the doorway as a man, over seven feet tall, entered. He stood, towering before me, covered head to toe in dark red armor, each piece of which was lined with dark grey, and hung on his back was a long-handled hammer made of the same dark red metal as his armor, but adorned with gold rings rather than the dull gray that lined his armor.

"I suppose you thought you stopped me by destroying my fleet?". He said in a slightly condescending tone. He paused for a moment, laughing. "But just one strike from this fine relic fixed my ship right up." He tapped on the hammer hung on his back. "The Ironsmith sure won't regret lending it to me for this operation," He said, grinning widely.

The Ironsmith. Those words rang in my ears. The Ironsmith was the power-hungry warlord who ruled the Iron Fist Clan with his powerful hammer that could bend all metal to his will, and gave him his title.

I snapped out of thought. "You probably should've kept a sword against my throat," I said in a calm voice. "Disarm!" I shouted, casting a spell that sent my enemies' weapons flying against the walls, leaving them broken on the ground, but as I ran for the door the Iron Fist commander unsheathed his hammer and struck me in the stomach, sending me tumbling back across the room.

"Everyone thinks it's a weapon," said the commander, walking up to me and placing his foot on my chest, "when in fact, it's actually a tool, though of course that won't stop me from using it offensively. And also," he said, leaning in close, "don't do that again, will you? The Ironsmith needs you in one piece." He took his foot off my chest and resumed a normal position. "Take him outside," he said, stepping to the side as two of the soldiers stepped in, picked me up by the arms, and dragged me out of the room. "This may get messy," he continued, a malicious grin on his face.

Special thanks to my sister who proofread this for me.