Chapter 70: - A Test of Faith & Fate
As Lia looked up, her eyes passing over the dozens and dozens of others, she felt her breath come to a stop. Her mind was racing, her body was on fire, and a part of her wanted to run.
Hide.
Escape while she still had the chance.
But before she could do any of that, Cain's voice snapped her from her distress.
"I offer you one. One being of power is all I will grant, as a thank you for your care."
As she looked at Cain with wide eyes, Lia wanted to scoff.
Like she could care for this titan of a monster. Only a pure god or demon could gesture to this amount of absurdity and call it a gift.
This wasn't a gift. This was enough power to destroy entire kingdoms, just staring at her from the darkness.
In some ways she was happy - happy to know Cain believed in her, happy to know he was proud of her, how he wouldn't blame her for coming after him.
But in some ways, she was terrified.
"Y-You…you had all this?"
Cain seems surprised and caught off guard by the question.
"Hm? Of course, I told you I had an army."
He shrugged and smiled like it was no big deal, while Lia just looked at him with hollow eyes of disbelief.
"Cain. This isn't an army."
"Oh? Then what is it?"
"This is a cataclysm! An army marches into a kingdom fighting for their surrender. This - these…whatever they are, won't bother with a surrender. They'll just wipe out the whole kingdom!"
"So?"
Cain shrugged it off as if this was to be expected, and when Lia saw this, she couldn't help but clutch her head in disbelief.
"Cain, this - this…this isn't something you should be giving me?"
"Why?"
He frowned, somewhat seeing her rejecting his gift as a loss of faith.
"I just went after you because I was worried. Because you brought me comfort and security. I felt lonely and scared without you! I - I… I don't deserve this praise when I've done nothing -"
"Shut up."
Lia instantly stopped, hearing the sternness in his voice, as well as the growing pressure around her.
The eyes, once staring into her soul, shifted to focus on Cain, who could be seen with a red aura surrounding him.
He was fear, and she felt it.
"Let me explain to you how this world works, Lia. You don't get strong, you don't get rich, and you don't get the love of your life. The only thing you get is pain - Why? Because it's universal. There is no world out there, in the sky, the ground, or in between the species of reality and nothingness, where Pain does not exist."
He gestured around him, to the hundreds of eyes that watched him, each with a sense of fear, awe, and respect.
"Pain, is a teacher. Pain is a creator. Pain is a life line that everyone clings to. Only through pain can we understand that it is power - not wealth, strength, courage, respect, horror - or whatever you believe in. Power is power. And there is nothing in this life or the next that will change that."
He walked closer to her, his steps sending white ripples like water everywhere, slowly and carefully.
When he finally arrived in front of Lia, she had her head down, refusing to look him in the eyes.
"You don't believe in me?"
His question came as a shock to her, instantly raising her head to plead to his eyes, glowing red with a burning anger.
"N-No! It's not you…it's…"
"Who? If not me, then who? My power, my strength, or my knowledge? What - if not me, could you possibly lose faith in?"
She dropped her head again, her chest tightening and feeling a clenching emotional pain in her heart.
"...me."
"I'm sorry?"
He leaned down closer to her face, which had been covered by her long flowing hair.
"I didn't hear that."
Her voice was meek and quiet, inaudible to anyone but Cain.
"Me…I'm the one I don't trust. I'm the one I don't believe in. How could I?"
She raised her head to look at him, his face cold and unmoving, showing nothing behind his glowing red eyes.
"I was abandoned by my parents. I was weak when I needed to be strong. Even to those who reached out to help me, I only became a burden to them. To my Uncle. To Al Shir. To everyone who believed in me."
Before long, Cain found himself listening to her rant about her weakness, something that detested him to his core.
"I'm terrible at fighting, and I have to rely on my friends to help me - yet I don't listen to them half the time, and injure them more than I can help them. I've been given all this power, yet I can't even use it right half the time."
She rubbed her burnt hand, having been covered in bandages with all her scratching and itching.
"What kind of summoner am I? I'm only one because of you-"
"How many times have I told you to shut up when you complain?"
Lia closed her mouth, the anger in Cain's voice frightened her.
"I've built you up, given you pride, and courage in yourself. But no matter how much I teach you, no matter how much I help you grow, you always crawl back into the little hole your parents dug for you. You never learn to have faith in yourself, and that is what angers me so."
"C-Cain -"
"No. Don't 'Cain' me in that pathetic voice of yours. You summoned me. You. Summoned. Me. Is that not enough for you to put a little pride in that chest? Is that not enough to give you just a little bit of faith in yourself? No, because you write it off as my doing. I'm not here because of you. I'm not here because of myself. I'm here because of fate. Fate led me to you, girl, and so help me to the gods above or below. If you don't learn to have pride in yourself, I'll walk to Fate herself and kick her out of office."
Lia was taken aback by his anger, raising her hands to try and calm him down, as he continued ranting and ranting, his aura growing brighter and brighter.
"You, Lia, are the reason I'm here. Because Fate, though foolish as she is at times, knew you were my match."
He pointed to her chest, his voice stern and stoic.
"Not having faith in yourself, is the same as not having faith in me. We are the same, and the minute you signed that contract with me, you became the king. You became the ruler of these people."
He gestured to the hundreds of eyes in the darkness, looking up the spiral of them that seemed to touch the stars.
"You are King, not I. I am simply your weapon to seize the power that rules this world. You want revenge? No. I see it in your eyes, you just want to prove to that sorry excuse of a family that you're strong, that you didn't deserve to be abandoned. Why prove that to them? Hold your head up higher, girl, and realize that from the pillar I will set you on, you will not - and mark my words - you will not lower your head to look down at those who are below you."
He motioned to the eyes, pointing at a few, and gesturing to wide ranges of groups.
"Do any of you object? I knight this woman my successor, and so help me, while I still have breath in my lungs, she will be queen!"
"Cain, please stop."
Lia grabbed on to Cain's arm, trying to pull him back as she hid her face from the many eyes that watched her with much interest.
"Why? Do you believe these people will go against you - judge you, shame you? Then let them go through me! I'll show them who to believe in, you!"
"Cain…"
Lia was at a loss for words as she felt the eyes pass between Cain and herself, measuring both their skills individually, but also their connection together.
"I am your weapon Lia. Your being of power, and whether it be that sword on your side, or one of these beings of power, we are weapons. So use us like them. Stop feeling bad for yourself, and condemn your spirit to the same fate your parents envisioned you becoming."
He took her chin, and with his fist, pointed her face up to the sky where a dawning bright light glistened in the darkness , stealing her voice as well as the air in her lungs away.
"Power, girl, is what rules this world."
He moved behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders and gesturing her focus before her.
However, what her eyes landed on stole what little breath she had regained in her lungs, and set her mind blank with fear and awe.
Standing in the hundreds, the eyes all appeared with outlines of their forms. Some large and tall, others huge as giants, some winged beasts and monsters, others as small as a squirrel. But they all stood there, staring at her.
All of a sudden she felt bare and exposed, as if these eyes were looking into her soul, her character, seeing the weakness that she had within.
But as she turned her eyes away from them, Cain took her chin in his hands, and turned her back to them, whispering in her ear.
"There is no weakness within you for them to see. Because all I see within you Lia, is a lesson you have learned from, and a lesson you will grow from. To be a powerful leader, Queen, and someday…"
His voice trailed off.
"...an empress."
Gasping at his words, Lia found her chest flooded with a warm and soothing feeling. No longer afraid, she looked over the hundreds, possibly thousands of beings of power, all who looked back with equal interest, but something else.
Respect.
To the summons before him - his people - Cain's voice was like a crier who spoke the king's proclamation and notices.
Not a single summons dared to speak up against him.
"Do you hold any doubt or harm towards Lia?"
Nothing.
Not a sound, not a voice.
Nothing.
"Do you believe she is unfit to rule over you with, not only the same power and respect you give me, but the same hope and belief you hold for me? Do you believe she is unfit to be my equal?"
Nothing.
"What about as your summoner? Many of you I know despise summoners and the feeling of shackles around your wrists and feet. Do you believe she is unfit to compel you to her will?"
"Cain…"
"Do you?"
No one said anything, no eyes wavered, and nobody shifted.
Finally, Cain looked down to Lia, her face like that of a lost child looking up to a knight in steel plated armor.
Cain broke the stare and silence with his loud booming voice.
"Do you acknowledge her as Queen?!"
-Bang! - Bang! -Bang!
The sound of three consecutive bangs echoed in the chamber, startling Lia, who was held in place by Cain's firm grip.
It was then that Lia realized that each one of the eyes had slammed their feet against the ground, banging their spears, staffs, and weapons together.
The result of which came at the sound of three loud bangs, all in unison.
"Do you believe she is strong?"
-Bang! -Bang! - Bang!
Again they came, loud and unwavering. Fair, yet steady.
Like voices of the army, calling out in silence of their ruler.
"Do you believe she is worthy?!"
He cried out, his voice rising above the lingering echoes of the banging.
-Bang! -Bang! -Bang! -Bang! -Bang! -Bang!
Again they came, yet they didn't stop. Unlike before they kept going, rising to fill the empty world with sounds of respect, honor, and praise.
But above the loud resounding bangs, thumps, and cries of metal on metal, Cain's voice remained clear in her ear, the rest of the sound fading out in the distance as he spoke.
"These people have faith in you. And if these beings of absolute power as your people call them have faith in you, how can you not have faith in yourself?"
Her breath caught, and she struggled to put air in her lungs.
"You made all these people kneel, just to teach me to believe in myself?"
Lia said, struggling to hold back the tears.
"I would make the world bow before you if that's what it took."
His breath tickled her ear as she felt a growing rise in pride and self worth.
"This world is ruled by the power that binds us. Not the powerful, not the powerless. Power rules us, as we use power to rule others."
He gestured to the many eyes and outlines who continued thumping their weapons against one another, their feet against the ground, and their cries above the sound of silence.
"These are people of power. No - they are power. Power itself does not take form in your world. So let it take from here, and use it there."
The dumping grew louder and louder, becoming a defending dull ring in her ear, as they all merged together in unison.
"Power rules the world."
His voice became nothing more than a whisper above the defining cries. But she heard it.
Clear as day.
"So seize it."
As if compelled by instinct, she raised her hand, and pointed out a figure in the sea of outlines and eyes.
She had chosen her weapon.
Now the war begins.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone