The Battle of Euangelion: Reborn

Chapter 1: A Journey into the Unknown

The collective murmur had barely turned into chaos when an explosion caused the windows on the left side of the building to burst and shatter all over the classroom.

Alexis half-dove half-fell beside her desk and covered her head. As she slowly turned around and tucked her messy blonde locks behind her ears, she saw a giant of a man in armor resembling something she had once observed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The 18-year-old's pearly brown eyes doubled in size.

The strange giant was just staring at her for what seemed like forever before pointing and beckoning her to follow him. The rapid shaking of her head only prompted him to reach through the broken window pane.

Alexis tried to get up and make a run for the door but the man proved faster. He forced his way through the turmoil, grabbed her by her leg, pulled her through the window, and hauled her over his shoulder before carrying her away from the wreckage she witnessed being left in his wake.

Before she could attempt to kick or scream they were on the back of the abductor's proportionally-sized transportation, which Alexis made out to be a golden-brown feline of some sort from her limited view; that is until the creature's movement started to part ways with the ground.

Finally, the blockage of Alexis' vocal cords was relieved - she yelled, "put me down, put me down!" until their altitude was that of her three-story school building. From that moment on she just screamed.

As the lion-creature ascended higher and higher the air grew colder and thinner. Whether it was from shock or lack of oxygen, Alexis passed out as they entered a dense cloud; still dangling over the Rider's shoulder.

***

A familiar and welcoming smell woke the aero-sedated girl. She was lying against a stone well on a hilltop overlooking an abnormally blue oceanic vista. Several more hills were popped up all around and dwarfed by the rocky mountain range that fringed the scene from the opposite side of the sea. The scent that woke her was a combination of the water's undiluted and uncontaminated high salt content which delivered with it the vegetative freshness of the valley in between.

Alexis leaned forward on her arms while she beheld the beautiful panoramic view. For a moment, she had completely forgotten about her ordeal; but the water droplets from the well snapped her out of her daze.

"Oh no," she said as she turned and registered the giant figure filling his water container. She quickly moved backward in a sitting backstroke until her backside bumped into the thing purporting to be a lion with an eagle's head and wings. Tempted to faint again, Alexis jumped up.

"I demand you take me back!" she insisted with confidence that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Captives don't make demands."

Alexis' lips pursed and her eyes widened the moment she heard her captor speak for the first time. His voice was otherworldly; deep, firm, and yet smooth like his helmet around its plume.

"Wh- who", she cleared her throat, "who are you? And where are we?"

"Everything you see that stretches from Mount Mysticis and passes over the horizons of the Sublimis Sea is the Kingdom of Euangelion." The man's hand pointed to the highest and most intimidating mountain in the rocky range preceded by nothing but clouds before moving his hand along to underline the most magnificent and untampered landscape full of trees as tall as buildings and finally halted in the direction of the groaning blue glory. The sea was alive.

"Kingdom? Now see, my memory may be a bit rusty, but I've been across the pond a few years ago and it most certainly didn't look anything like this," the girl protested with surprisingly less stuttering. "Look, I know falling asleep in history class is tradition. But normally the bell would've woken me up by now - and since that is not happening, I'm guessing you have something to do with it. And yo-you need to fix it."