The sun stood high into the sky. No cloud could be seen no winds could be felt.
As people went on with their daily lives. Not all could go around with big smiles on this day.
Lia stood with what felt like boulders on her shoulders. Today was the day she had feared, the day that everyone under the age of 15 feared. The Knight selection day.
She sat in a waiting area in the absolutely massive building that was the selection office of knights. Towering over all other buildings in the city. Covered in glass and stone pillar holding it.
The once tower-built thousands of years ago had been modernized by putting glass, making it look more like a skyscraper, but with a medieval style as it still had it stone pillars on the edges.
The waiting area was full of 15-year-olds with their families. Everyone on edge.
'The risk is only one in a million if not more' Lia reassured herself. She had already planned to go home and watch anime after this was done.
Being a knight didn't interest her, not even a world knight.
'But I bet I would look sexy af in a cool suit of armor.' She thought with a grin.
for a few hours names kept being called, one after one they entered the testing room. And soon after returned with smile on their faces.
Lia looked around at the people sitting and waiting.
Most looked normal, some scared and even those crying. Their family trying to console them that it was going to be okay.
She looked down into her phone. 'not even a sms huh' she thought with a heavy heart. Her family didn't even come to see her on this day. Lia's family was always busy they kept telling her, of course it was all bullshit as they only cared about her other sibling. Her being a bit different than the others made her invincible in most situations. She had grown to accept this, longing for the day to get away from home.
'Maybe becoming a Hlee-Knight would finally get me away from them' She thought as a joke.
Then a word shaper than any knife was heard. "Lia Flamme" her name was announced on the speakers. It was her turn.
A boulder had just been dropped into her stomach as she stood up. People around her looked up as she stood. Their faces sympathetic, maybe even pity.
Lia started walking towards the announced room.
'Room 10, my favorite number' she thought as she stood before the door.
The door slid open with a little hiss, and a room with a seat and a man in a white coat appeared inside the room. She stepped inside the room.
"Welcome Lia Flamme. Please take a seat." He pointed his hand towards the chair in the middle of the room. The room was plain, gray tile floor with white walls. On the left of the room was a big mirror, most likely a two way mirror.
She sat down in the metallic chair.
The man had a tablet in his hands, he clicked on it a couple of time before looking at Lia. "Alright. The test will work like this, you will place your hand on this sphere." As he said that a small sphere appeared and floated in front of Lia. "I will ask some questions, and you will answer them while holding the sphere in your hands." He explained.
Lia reached out to the sphere, as she touched the metal looking ball it stopped floating and landed in her palm.
She held the sphere in her hands, resting her hands in her lap as she held the ball. The man seemed fine with this way as he nodded.
"Lets being" he started, his voice sharp but not yelling. "Would you kill to defend yourself?" he asked
Lia didn't hesitate. "Yes" her voice cold and steady. As she said that, she could feel the metallic ball in her hands warm up and vibrate a little.
The man nodded. "Would you consider yourself brave?" he asked
She thought for a second on situations where she could feel herself being brave but other times she would be a coward. "No" she said after some thought.
The ball in her hands once again became warm, the turning ice cold.
Lia flinched slightly at the sudden change, but kept her composure. The man didn't seem surprised; he only tapped something on his tablet, eyes scanning whatever data was appearing there.
"Next question," he continued, his voice steady but with the faintest hint of curiosity. "Do you believe in gods?"
Lia hesitated. It wasn't that she didn't believe. Everyone knew they existed. But believing in them and trusting them were two different things.
"I believe they exist," she said carefully. "But I don't think they care about people like me."
The sphere pulsed once. A low hum filled the air. For a split second, Lia thought she saw faint cracks of red light run across its surface, like veins under skin, before it returned to normal.
The man's eyes flicked up from his tablet. "...Interesting," he muttered under his breath.
Lia frowned. "What does that mean?"
"Nothing," he said quickly, forcing a small, polite smile. "Just continue. Next question: What would you sacrifice for power?"
Her chest tightened. She thought about her empty messages, the years of being overlooked, the constant sense that she didn't matter.
"Anything," she whispered.
The metallic ball in her hands reacted. This time the red cracks he thought she had seen before were bright and the cracks were truly visible. The light from the ball lit up the room.
The man staggered back, shielding his eyes from the bright red light. "What the hell…?"
Lia dropped the sphere, but it didn't fall to the ground. It hovered in front of her chest. The red cracks lighting up the room shining even brighter now. The temperature dropped in the room and frost started forming around the sphere spreading from it.
The man shouted into a telephone on the wall. "We have a reaction, immediate contamination on room 10!"
Lia could barley hear what he said. She was too focused on the floating ball of red light in front of her.
Then silence.
The light vanished, the air still and heavy. Lia blinked, her breath coming out in white mist.
"W-what…" she managed to say, but her words died as the metallic sphere, now dull and cracked, drifted slowly toward her and pressed itself against her chest. It sank in, as if the metal melted through her skin.
Pain shot through her like lightning. She screamed, clutching her chest, falling to her knees.
Through the agonizing pain she could hear a whisper.
"Two thousand years… and finally… a soul worthy of my name."
The lights in the room exploded.
When the guards burst in seconds later, they found the examiner unconscious, the mirror shattered, and Lia standing in the center of the destruction, eyes burning faintly golden, her hair drifting as if moved by unseen wind.
Her fingers trembled as she looked down at her hands. Etched across the skin of her right arm was a faint symbol, a chain coiled around a bleeding sun.
The guards who had ran into the room before stood quiet.
Everyone knew what this meant. A god had chosen a warrior for hell, A Hell-Knight.
After a moment of silence. Someone else entered the room. A women, in a fancy suit and a look of authority. She stood just past the doorway, looking at the spectacle in front of her. The girl in the middle of the room with golden eyes, and hair that looked like it was floating in water. Power leaking out from her making the room even more tense.
"Hello Lia. My name is Emma, I'm the director of this Knight testing facility." She said calmly, there was no hurry in her voice. "It seems something extraordinary had happened to you. Something very rare."
Lia finally looked at her. "No shit, but I didn't want this." She said annoyed.
Emma looked sympathetic. "I can understand that, but sadly it's not something we choose ourself." She walked towards Lia. Her steps calm as if walking on ice and being afraid of falling over.
The director Emma now stood in front of Lia, she looked down at the mark on her right hand. She seemed confused, unsure. She told one of the guards to bring her a tablet.
The guard gave her a tablet similar to the one the man who asked questions before had. She scrolled for a few seconds, then finally said.
"You have something very unique." She said as she now looked into Lia's eyes. "That mark, or God who chose you. Is not known to us, no one has ever been chosen by this god."
The words hung in the air for a few moments, even the guards and the new instructors who had arrived sometime looked worried and unsure. Gods often select many chosen, sometimes even more than one per year. There are rare gods sure, but one that hasn't been seen before was strange.
Emma looked at the instructors. "The ceremony will now proceed, instructors please prepare the connection chamber." She looked at Lia after giving the order. "You will now get to enter a second room. There you will be able to talk to your god." She looked towards the door at the end of the room.
Lia looked at the door as well, and then turned back to Emma. "Will my family be contacted?"
"Yes, we will contact them shortly." Emma answered.
'they didn't treat me like family but, quess I will be nice enough to give them a reason to clear out my room.' She thought as she started walking towards the door.
Lia didn't feel sad, she did feel worried. Anyone would knowing they would be sent to hell. And most likely die. But she didn't feel worried about the hell part, she was worried about this god of hers. An unknown, she did hear the voice before, and she did feel something when the sphere got absorbed into her body.
Before entering the chamber, Emma said one more thing. "I wish you good fortune, honored Hell-Knight. May the demons of hell fear thy name, and tremble at sight. May the gates of Hell tremble as your name is carved into its walls."
Lial liked that quote 'The gates of hell will tremble by my name' she thought as she entered the chamber.
The door closed behind her.
The chamber was a domelike structure. The lightning came from a few candles around the chamber walls. In the middle of the dome was a chair, it looked old. Lia approached the chair. It was made from some wood she had never seen before. it was rugged, and looked like it was about to fall apart.
After some hesitation she sat down on the chair.
For a moment nothing happened, then. The candles flared, and more fire started around the chamber. The raised platform that had the chair in the middle was now surrounded by fire.
Lia could feel something, a presence. Not in the room, more like in her mind.
"So, my Knight has finally appeared." A booming voice was heard, the voice was sharp, steady. "It was about time someone appeared, it was getting rather boring."
The voice had a feeling of someone very wise, it felt like Lia could ask him anything and he would know the answer.
"Who are you?" she asked finally.
When she asked, she got a feeling like surprised, but it wasn't her feeling.
"Oh, I forgot to say. My name is Erythos." He answered causally, almost like it wasn't surprising at all, he didn't even give a story or explanation.
Lia felt confused. "That doesn't help me, I still don't know anything about you."
The god was thinking, she could feel it. she had no idea who this Erythos is, it sounded Greek. But that didn't really help.
"You will find out on our journey, time will give answers." He said, it was simple the questions about his identity will be revealed sooner or later. "But now, I have some thing for you, hold on this might hurt a little."
Just when Lia was about to ask.
An agonizing pain hit her entire body. It felt like someone was pulling her apart, and putting her back together. The pain before was only a fraction of this.
Blood started seeping out of her skin, nose, ears and eyes. The god was reshaping her body. She felt this explanation as if he was telling her this. She screamed in pain, the screams echoing through out the chamber. The dome amplifying the scream.
The pain continued for 15 minutes, non stop.
Once the pain subsided. Lia laid on the ground shaking. She looked up blankly at the ceiling.
But the pain dispersed, and the fatigued she had felt once the pain stopped disappeared. She almost felt new. Like she had gotten good knight sleep. She sat up.
She looked at her legs.
"White...?" she looked them over again. she had armor on her legs, white armor. A sort of skirt hiding more as she moved it. she lifted her arms to reveal more armor, her chest and everything. She felt her head and could feel a helmet. Even when she had armored gloves on, it was like she wasn't wearing armor but she was.
She stood up, the armor wasn't heavy. It felt natural, as if she was born in it.
Once she stood up, she felt it. her sense, smell, hearing, sight. Everything was amplified. She could hear to voices from outside the door in the waiting area of the facility. She could feel the guards and Emma in the room from before.
She looked around and saw a mirror. She walked towards it and looked at herself.
A beautiful white armor with golden details. The armor had engraving, patterns of the chest and helmet. Her shoulders pads were shaped like owl head with wings around it. the chest piece had a symbol of and owl in the middle with engraving all around it. the helmet had two eye slits, and the mouth guard were wings from an owl. A skirt or kilt covered her armored legs.
'So I do look sexy in armor' Lia thought as she looked at herself in the armor.
"Now that you have some of the best armor around, you need a weapon." Just then a ring appeared and floated before her.
She hesitated but after a moment took the ring. The ring had the same engraving as her chest armor. And owl. Once she was about to remove her right gauntlet to put the ring on, it disappeared. Reveling her hand.
"The armor disappears if the wearer wills it. and appears if the armor wills it or the wearer does. Its like a living armor." The god added, the words echoed in her mind.
'So, If I just…' as she thought about removing her whole armor it all disappeared. And then she saw it. her body had changed. The clothes she wore before barley fit her anymore. She didn't grow taller, but her proportions had changed.
More muscles everywhere. Her arms were slim but a lot of muscles she felt, her thighs and legs bigger. She felt like she could jump to the top of this building. her stomach now had abs and a definitive line.
'I look like one of those models now, even my breast grew' she added quiet happy about the change.
After spending a couple minutes admiring her new body transformation she put on the ring.
Once the ring was on she thought about the armor, and from her chest the armor grew out again. it was like a smoke that built her armor, a mist.
It only took 2 seconds for the armor the be fully equipped again.
"Now that you have admired your new body for way to long." The god added with a annoyed voice. "This ring is your weapon, as you have gotten my fighting technique, you also gained my knowledge in the weapons I used. And I used a lot of weapons."
Lia was confused. 'what do you mean a lot of weapons' she thought. But her thoughts quieted after a sword started forming in her hand. A dual edged sword, light, strong, appeared.
She waved the sword around, feeling the weight. It felt good. She took a stance she didn't know she knew and started air fighting. The blade whistled threw the air, the strikes carried weight even against nothing.
The thought about hitting something further away made the sword become a spear. And once again she started using techniques she never knew of. But she did know them. she held the spear and wanted it to change into daggers, and once again the spear started changing, it turned into a liquid and shaped into two daggers, one in each hand.
"My favorite in the dual blades" Erythos said casually.
Lia thought about dual blades and the daggers became longer and wider. Soon two swords, one in each hand. She held them up and felt it, the power. She started moving. Her moves flowed fluently, the blades whistled in the air. After a couple of minutes, she stopped.
She stood for a moment. "Well, what now?"
"For starter, make your armor form two sword sheaths. Can't go around holding two swords all the time." He added.
The armor quickly added two sheaths on each side, she slid the swords down.
She stood before the mirror once more and admired herself in her armor. But a lingering feeling she still had became heavier. Fear, she was about to enter hell.
She thought about everything, her life, school. But then she remembered, no one else really cared where she was. All her life she had been the one everyone forgot about, never chosen first. But here she was, chosen by a god. With this in mind she finally made up her mind.
"I will bring hell to its knees." She said out loud, the words echoed through the chamber.
The god in her mind smiled. "Good. Lets make them fear your name shall we?"