The Church of Ro has traveled many paths throughout its long history to enhance its knights' abilities against their demonic foes. Years ago, the Knights of the Chalice returned from the Abyss with three fist-sized glowing crystals of intense, pure white light: seeds of positive energy. They were unable to determine how or why the demons had acquired them, but the Church saw a way to use them to its own ends. Such seeds should suffuse the recipient with life-giving positive energy, thereby greatly increasing their physical and mental abilities and granting them limitless regenerative capacity.
The Church chose three of its greatest knights to receive the seeds. The first was quickly overwhelmed by the positive energy, his body swelling with vitality until he finally burst. For the second, the Church sought to balance the effects by seeking ways to constantly injure the knight (such as using a clockwork bracer set with spinning blades that would continually grind into her arm) to put the healing energy to use. The second knight's implantation with the seed was successful and the bracer held her body in check, though the constant pain across the decades slowly drove her mad. She lives locked away in the deepest confines of the Church, the secret of the seed held in strictest confidence, and tortures and mutilates herself in new, inventive ways. She is still known among the higher echelons of the knightly orders as the Blood Knight, an unstoppable force on the battlefield who, before even entering combat, constantly weeps blood from beneath her armor (the interior of which is lined with hundreds of spikes). She throws herself with complete abandon at the areas of strongest resistance, the ultimate shock trooper. The Church thanks Ro that her devotion to slaying demons has not waned in the face of her utter madness.
The third knight received his seed soon after the second knight's successful implantation. The bracer was strapped to his arm and began its painful grinding. The seed was placed upon his chest and the ritual of fusion begun. However, something went wrong and, instead of the seed melting into positive energy and suffusing through him, the seed burrowed into his chest. The pure white light turned to gold and began to throb like a beating heart. It grew more and more intense, a bright glow pouring out of his body until it filled the entire room with a flash of blinding light. In the aftermath, Gideon Brochard tore off the bracer and lied on the table with a golden, beating heart shining from his chest. The seed had granted him immense strength and regeneration but did not threaten to overwhelm him as it did the other two. He was dubbed Gideon Goldenheart, the Shining Knight, and has served the Church faithfully for decades, hardly aging at all. He is among the Church's staunchest heroes and most recognizable symbols. The official story is that Gideon is so pure of heart, so filled with devotion to Ro, that his heart glows with a golden light. In reality, Gideon died from the pain and blood loss before the ritual was complete and the seed, a pure crystal of life-giving positive energy, renewed him.
UPDATE: I thought about switching the second and third knights. In that case, the successful implantation was the female knight Ghislaine Brochard. I may just keep the name and make them brother and sister: Gideon "Goldenheart" Brochard and Ghislaine "Blood Knight" Brochard.
No comments:
Post a Comment