"..."
Aegis stood there, frozen for a couple of seconds before taking a deep sigh.
He took some time digesting the information.
He instinctively put his hand to his left eye, it felt strange somehow.
It felt like there was something inside it, something liquidy.
Suryavya mentioned that 300 years have passed since I perished. How long has he been dead?
Was his demise before I perished or after? I should have known if it was before; it's likely only after I perished... How is he still able to communicate with me? Well, he is a god he must have his Ways...
Perhaps the empire has gone back to its old ways, where the worship of evil gods was more prevalent.
That could be a reason the Lord perished...
Faith doesn't mean loyalty after all.
He thought deeply for a couple of seconds. Suryavya was a god who had lived for who knows how many eras.
It's certainly not easy to kill a god; his demise only shows the strength of the abyss.
He tried recalling his memories again, he couldn't recall anything besides what he already knew.
"It's almost sunset; I should herd these sheep back into the pen."
"At this moment the shepherd Alicent Gregis lives, and Aegis Bernard Leos III has long perished..." Alicent continued. "I shall honour this boy's duty."
He began herding the sheep into the pen, although the emperor never herded sheep, the remnants of the shepherd still lingered.
...
Near the plains, there was a large barn where yaks, mountain goats, and sheep were kept. In the large pen, several hundred sheep resided.
North of the Mountains of Giants, it never rained, nor was it particularly harsh for the sheep, so they were kept outside.
"Done herding the sheep?" A voice asked the teen, and he looked at the source of the voice.
It was the man who raised Alicent, his father, Anthony Gregis. Aegis recognized the man from Alicent's remnant memories.
"Uhh... I'm almost done, sir." He replied, unfamiliar with how to respond.
A noble's tongue was quite different from a commoner's; thankfully, Aegis knew the Ard language, a language spoken north of the mountains of the giants, through his second wife, Kaitlyn.
She was the prettiest woman he laid eyes on, and although she died when he was in his 40s, almost 20 years later Aegis still remembered her warm smile and her gentle voice.
She perished just south of the mountain on the Giant's Fort, a castle that guarded the sacred homeland of the giants.
As the direct descendant of the giants, Aegis was its protector, and he did protect it, yet his wife took an arrow to her heart.
"You'd better get to work then... Dinner's stew." Anthony said as he walked away.
Alicent's gaze landed on his father's back that was illuminated by the orange evening sunset.
He sighed as he got back to work.
He quickly closed the sheep pen and poured water from the trough into the feeding tub.
Soon he went to eat dinner. They sat cross-legged; there were no fancy tables or cutlery.
Although he disliked the taste of the stew, it still felt homemade. It had a certain sense of warmth to it which was separate from the heat.
This reminds me of the meals Mother made me sometimes; perhaps she wanted me to experience the warmth of a homemade meal. She grew up as a commoner as well.
Alicent slowly lifted the wooden spoon.
"You seem to like it more than usual."
Aegis felt startled; he spilled a bit of soup from his spoon onto the floor. He wiped it off with a rag nearby.
"I was more tired than usual."
"I saw you dozing off near the tree today; " Antony said as he finished his stew, he stood up. "You'll get fat if all you do is eat and sleep."
"I just took a nap, that's all."
"I will be herding the sheep tomorrow. You will go and deliver a letter to my friend in the city tomorrow." Anthony said before he went outside to clean the broom and spoon.
"Okay." Alicent replied.
The city was Grunard; Alicent had already figured it out through the remnant memories of the previous Alicent.
It was a beautiful city, as far as he remembered, with large walls and a magnificent castle in the center.
It was also called the city of the Giant Smiths because of its blacksmiths and craftsmen.
He remembered somethings from his past life.
It's king, The dwarven Giant Albeard.
He saw the memories of Aegis's hand decapitating the Dwarven Giant.
He wondered what the city was like now after he had perished.
The next morning came quickly, and Alicent got dressed in decent clothes.
"Here, Take this sword with you." Antony handed him a short sword. "I've heard rumors of these weapons Guns..."
"Guns?" Alicent asked, confused; he hadn't heard of such things in both of his lives.
"I guess you wouldn't know much if you haven't gone out that much. They are like cannons, but they shoot smaller cannonballs through a hand-sized barrel."
The teen nodded.
'Handheld cannons? Absolutely absurd—would a person's hand be able to handle it? Perhaps it's just a myth...'
"I hope you take good care of this letter. We are selling 20 of our sheep to the city."
Alicent nodded and quickly walked off after getting warned about some robbers near the woods.
He made a mental note to avoid the roads through the forest.
He got on the horse, Betsy. She was a 3-year-old horse that was the cheapest one could buy.
He soon rode Betsy along the roads till he arrived at the main highway of the north.
"Arden II Highway"
He didn't quite know who this Arden fellow was, perhaps a king of the north, perhaps the current king in the north.
Considering Alicent had never ventured out of his father's farm he never knew much.
'I need to find out what has happened within the past 300 years. there used to be a newspaper system in the north. Is there still one now?'
He thought. After a moment, He resumed his act of riding the horse through the stone-paved highway.
About 30 minutes later he saw the walled city that was Grunard.
The walls spanned wide and they were more than 50 meters tall.
A pulse travelled through his nerves, as if some changes had been made to them. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his jaw sprung open; his body convulsed slightly for a second before going back to normal.
An army of giants appeared, emerging from the ground before Alicent, their bodies bathed in black tar.
They were all tall, taller than 30 meters.
They all ran towards the city, their bare, muscular backs facing him.
The earth shook violently under the Giant's stomping.
Their footsteps left behind large imprints from which the black tar emerged and filled, and from there, even more giants appeared and ran towards the city with their backs turned.
"In my name as the Emperor Supreme, The Lord of Valion and the Kingdom of Light..."
It was not him who had muttered the words, It was the emperor.
His visage turned to that of a man in his 40s, his beard was black, and his hair was greying.
He wore golden battle armor, a large cape over his back fluttered in the wind.
It had a symbol of only a white cross that was stained in blood; the snake that wrapped it was nowhere to be found.
His left eye glowed with a dim hue, and the cape he wore on his back fluttered even more as a translucent liquid wrapped around his body.
His legs lifted up from the ground, and his body floated in the sky.
He spread his arms as if he was hugging the sun.
The emperor closed his eyes and said loudly.
"I summon Auram, The First Giant..."
From the soil, the abyss leaked out and spread out like a puddle; from it, a single hand with each finger larger than a human came out.
His vision blurred out as the scene from his memories overlapped with the real world.
There he stood still on the horse, sweat drenching him and his hands shaking, his left iris pulsed slightly before going back to normal.
"..."
'Is this the reason why I have amnesia? Has my mind blocked the horrifying memories... Was I someone capable of summoning such terrifying creatures? ..
The symbol I wore clearly had a blood-stained cross instead of a cross with a twirling snake.
Is that the symbol of the original Red Order?
And the one that came and later assassinated me...
He was confused to the symbol of the red order.
"The city of the dwarves and the giants... It's been a long time." He muttered to himself as his horse slowly walked towards the gates.
He looked towards the side of the gate, in the little guard outpost. usually only two people sat there, and there were knights standing there as well.
They wore the red cross with the twirling snake.
They aren't looking for me, are they? Unless I had previously created a commotion, they shouldn't be informed about my revival.
There were a few guards stationed just a few meters ahead of Alicent; they all held spheres pointed towards the sky.
Has something happened recently? At most two or three guards should be guarding the gates...
The gates were open, and the guards weren't hindering the other passersbys.
One of the guards looked at Alicent and looked at the guard next to him before he nodded at his partner.
"Wait, traveler." One of the guards said as he put a hand on the saddle. Alicent gently tugged the rope and stopped the horse.
"Yes, mister?" Alicent answered with a questioning tone as if he was asking, 'Why have you decided to stop me?'
"We are ordered to capture a blasphemer. Black hair, blue eyes, and slightly tanned skin—I think you match that description well."