The Prince Of Magic

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[… Spider's Nest – West ...]

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Fate has a strange way of doing things sometimes.

In the case of Scáthach, it happened to her in the least way she had expected.

Once, Scáthach was a mortal. She had been as normal as any other people in the past, albeit blessed with power, beauty and wisdom. As the sole owner of her lands, she had people that served under her rule and Scáthach had done her best to be fair and just in role as their queen.

In return, she was respected and highly revered as someone in a position of power.

Then, slowly, monsters of all various types descended upon her lands. And in time, she gained a certain l.u.s.t for battle, growing continuously as she fought against powerful creatures as it went on.

She supposed that was when everything began to slowly change for her. However, she certainly did not expect that her favorite past time would eventually turn into her own worst nightmare.

The more she fought all kinds of beast that intruded upon her territory throughout the years, the more she grew experienced and powerful. Too powerful.

So great that Scáthach became greatly feared even by the gods themselves, and she was only too late to realize the consequences of the subtle changes in her body as her victories continued to rise.

When Scáthach noticed that her body remained unchanging, no matter how time had passed on, that was when she knew that she was no longer a mortal.

She had panicked at first and tried to find other ways to stop her body from turning into a true immortal, but all the methods she found yielded no true results.

Except for one, the crimson spear that she made from the materials of a special tree that she took great care in nurturing, 'Gae Bolg'.

The crimson spear became the perfect tool to slay creatures who have the immortal attribute, which she then used to slay many enemies that pervaded her territory.

She had originally intended to use the spear for her own purpose, but when so many monsters came to her home, Scáthach was left with no choice but to defend her lands by using the murderous spear, along with her prized runes.

Her reputation grew so fearsome that she earned an ominous title from the local folk, the 'Warrior Queen of Dun Scaith'.

But, Scáthach didn't care. What only matters to her was that her territory was clean of monsters, keeping her people safe and her lands peaceful.

However, not all things can last as the era of the Age of the Gods began to wane, what with the phantasmal creatures and the gods themselves retreated to the reverse side of the world.

There was an unknown calamity that caused the deities to escape to the other side out of panic when most of their kind died under the hands of a powerful enemy that seemed despised them.

By then, it was already too late to know the source of the calamity when Scáthach herself became so busy with defending her territory from hordes of monsters.

It had been sudden, like a dam bursting due to overflow of water, when the monsters came upon her lands and made themselves comfortable by building nests upon nests around her beloved territory, much to her annoyance.

And Scáthach was left with no other choice but to hunt down and kill the rats (monsters, wraiths, gods, etc.) loitering about near her home.

The pests stained her lands with their vile energies, turning the once rich, healthy soil and untainted meadows into something dead and incapable of even producing grass, much less any plant life.

Her lands was so littered with wraith-like creatures, Scáthach gained an immense power that she can control over and close the gate of her realm to ward off the dead, turning into a ruler and gatekeeper.

It was at that time when the realm under her rule began to separate itself from the world, eventually turning into a dreary and dangerous place known as the 'Land of Shadows'.

When the last of her servants had passed on and Scáthach became the only one left alive in the castle, she first had thoughts of committing suicide to join them.

The thought of living alone by her own lonesome in the castle for an indefinite time scared her, not that her pride would ever admit it out loud.

But, her sense of duty to her previous subjects and her pride kept herself from doing the deed.

And so, for countless years, Scáthach had lived in quiet solitude, only leaving the castle to deal with the monsters appear upon her lands every once in a while.

Somewhere in between those years, she took in many warriors that sought out her teachings and wisdom, among that stood out were Ferdiad and Cu Chulainn, who both made their respective marks down in the history of mankind.

Scáthach was proud of her pupils and their achievements, but she would never admit it out loud in fear of stroking their already inflated egos.

The idiot duos were already unbearable enough with their usual antics, she doesn't want to give them another reason to become even more annoying.

When it was time for her students to leave, Scáthach did not see them off due to having already passed down all her teachings to them.

Using her foresight, Scáthach had predicted her student's final moments, and she lamented that the man who might be the only one that she would allow to end her life had also beaten her to the grave.

After the death of her pupils, Scáthach became more closed off from the world as she merely focused on her duty as the sole ruler and gatekeeper of the realm, which had effectively caused the Land of Shadows to be completely sundered from the mortal world, fully becoming a land of the dead.

Still continuing to exist unto modern times and unable to become a Heroic Spirit on the Throne of Heroes, Scáthach had not ventured outside of the Land of Shadows for two thousand years.

Unable to die, she could only wait until the time of the world its outside would finally disappear.

At least, that was what she had always thought.

Never did she expected that her life would quickly change its course just by meeting a strange young man.

And that strange young man would become her Master, Hadrianus Mathius von Schweinorg.

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