~~Later that day

Former Commander of Squad Six, Lanceleot Mallard, Commander of Squad One, Jorah Mormont, Commander of Squad Two, Joram Isumbras, Commander of Squad 13, Claudius Lannister as well as the stoic Commander of Squad Ten, Ivan Bordeaux were all seated within the mansion of Mormont. Bordeaux had only been present because he was curious about the blond beauty, Celeste. The senior Knights knew about her and would surely be sharing the informations with them. That was why he even bothered to be present. Coming to a gathering like this was not something that a respectable head of the Bordeaux Clan did. But because he was curious, he came.

For Mormont and Isumbras, since they were brothers in everything, but blood, they always got together whenever they had time. But this was a different occasion. Their friend was back to their lives.

"Was she always like that?" Claudius was the first to broke the silence. Celeste was not subtle whenever she spoke and seemed to be cold. She was also rude and for the lack of better words, disrespectful.

"Yes and no..." Isumbras trailed off. Looking intently at the younger Knights.

"When we first met her, she was awefully quiet, but deep inside, I think she had always been cold. She was always brutally honest. Especially when it has something to do with the Grandmaster. Several times we caught them bickering like they were equal. We've asked about it, of course, but she would always ignore us. As time passed, we got used to it eventually."

Mormont smiled upon hearing what Isumbras just said. "Celeste was a good person. For that, we welcomed her even though none of us knew where she came from. We were only aware of the fact that she was already a lot older and was on par in strenght with the Grandmaster, but she returned to the Academy for our sake. When we were together, we discovered that she was like any other girls. She would even drag Isabel to go boys-hunting as she liked to call it. During that time, she had already broken countless of hearts."

"I found that hard to believe." Bordeaux snorted as he crossed his arms. She looked nothing like a flirt. She seemed to be all business and not taking any nonsense.

"No, it's not." Smirking, Mormont took a sip of his sake before continuing. "We were all present when the Grandmaster told us the truth. With a woman of her caliber, it isn't too hard to believe that Celeste lived much of her life alone. When sensei invited her, she was given a chance to start afresh. To make up of all her loneliness and pain, she chose to always have us or some other guys beside her. Before she left the Academy, she was always with a new guy. She never seemed to get tired of them."

"Was it fear of being alone again that compelled her to seek out guys?" Mallard asked particularly to no one.

Isumbras shrugged. "Might have been. However, that all changed when she quit the Academy. There was little she cared for when she's still with us, but before she left, she already stopped caring about everything, even our friendship." A forced smile etched on his lips. Suddenly, he remembered something which would probably get him killed, but it was always amusing to see the funny look on people who would hear it. "Do you know that we once thought she had an affair with Isabel?"

"What!" Claudius automatically spat the tea he was sipping earlier. Some of the liquid landed on Bordeaux skin which earned an angry scowl from the man as he grimaced on the wetness at his hands.

Mallard, being playful as he was, only smirked. "Was it serious?" This was definitely gold. He could never have guessed that Isabel would have a physical affair with anyone.

"No." Mormont looked at his best friend, Isumbras, as the man took a sip of his sake. "It was all just a misunderstanding. We misunderstood their closeness. We found out later that Celeste was just confiding some of her problems with Isabel and that was the reason why she understood Celeste better than anyone else."

"If you still love your lives, you won't tell anyone about this, especially to Isabel!" Isumbras cringed knowing how scary Isabel could be. She was sometimes even scarier than the Grand Master.

All the occupants in the room gulped as they nod their heads in a quick pace.

Regaining from his small outburst, Claudius turned serious as he prepared his questions. "Just how strong was she?" He just wanted to break the intense atmosphere as the subject the men were discussing did not suit him at all.

"Godlike." Mormont turned serious. It was time for the main topic.

"If my theory was correct, then she became a Commander by demonstrating only a bit of her powers. According to her, she would use the same amount when she was fighting Ala-gramps." It was still a mystery to him how that woman could become that powerful. She was once a friendly and playful person, but that was until her power grew into an unimaginable proportions. He then turned to their three guests.

"If her energy could still be sensed, all of you, the younger generations would not be able to stand before her. The mere pressure of her powers would paralyze you." Looking at youngest of them, Isumbras knew that in years to come, Claudius would grow even stronger than he was now. However, someone like Celeste would never recognize him as a Commander until then. When anyone is weaker than her, he or she would be treated as trash. Not the Grandmaster earned her approval. It was no secret that she insulted him so much because he always followed orders.

Still, Isumbras never faulted the woman. On the contrary, he admired her. Celeste stood strong in her beliefs, never wavering unlike most people. When something was wrong, she was not afraid to say it. Mormont, Isabel and he learned that from her. Even the times when Celeste would take things to a wider proportions, she never did anything she deemed wrong. In her eyes, she was right to challenge their laws.

He was aware that their laws were unfair and unjust. He could never understand them, but Celeste was always there to point that out and refused to follow them. He could not blame her when Celeste proclaimed herself as the new god because the the deities were not doing their jobs.

He had to admit that even he, himself was ashamed of the fact that the Order of the Holy Knights did not do enough. Normal civilians were suffering, but they did nothing about that. Celeste was right, they had become so obsessed with fighting demons and other creatures that nothing else mattered. It was not that Celeste actually cared for those civilians in the land of Nyrae, but she was merely stating the fault of the Order.

In reality, the civilians actually feared and hated all of them. They were not viewed as the protectors they were supposed to be. In fact, they were the monsters, the oppressors, the tyrants. Most Knights never went to the civillians aids in order to investigate crimes and other things. They only went there when there were demons or monsters attacking. They had become so track-minded that anything other than demons or other monsters were not a threat or just did not matter.

"She's that powerful, huh?" Claudius nodded. Not knowing what to believe. He did not actually think that there was someone who would be able to defeat the strongest of them. But the man himself had stated that he could be defeated by Celeste if she really wanted to. If he could not even stand the woman's energy pressure, then how could he fight her?

"What about her sword? How strong were they?" Bordeaux grinned inwardly. This was turning out to be better than he thought. He was getting much more information than he first thought.

Mormont held his chin as though he was thinking. "Unlike the rest of us, her sword does not have any physical transformation. No one knew the extent of its full power as she never wielded it to its  maximum." Then again, no one had ever seen her blade since she always hid it. There was also the fact about her eyes. They spent thousands of years with the woman, but she never told them anything.

At first, she had merely stated that she was born like that and that there was nothing special about them. For a long time, they believed that. No one even suspected anything about her eyes. She was indeed good at keeping secrets. It's already too late when they found out that the power she had used to gain entrance to the Order was not actually her real power, but just an ability of one of her eyes.

This of course, never made it easy to deal with her because no one ever knew what to expect with a woman who had always been cautious. She always ended her fights easy and quickly so not to show much of her abilities. The only ability she never hid was the fact that she was faster than anyone. Even the Grandmaster cannot hope to defeat her in speed.

"Unbelievable!" Claudius was speechless. He wanted to say something, but the words were abandoned at the tip of his tongue. He could only stare at Isumbras who was calmly consuming his sake.

Bordeaux on the other hand was grinning madly. Only a powerful woman like her is worthy to become his consort. He could already imagine the offsprings they would produce. They would be godlike!

"Was there anything else special about her?" As a scientist, Mallard was very curious. He wanted to know as much as possible about the woman. The books he was able to collect never did show much, just a few important facts. But he himself had to go and see the woman himself. He wanted to confirm something.

"Her energy was special. She never elaborated how, but she could switch her energy to that of a demon's energy. This ability is what lead Ala-gramps to believe that she had a demonic power." Isumbras shrugged. "Like everything about her power, she never told a soul how that came to be. But everything else went back to her eyes. The problem was that she never confirmed nor denied anything."

Mallard nodded. It was really interesting. He always loved to solve mysteries and he would resolve this enigma no matter how hard or seemingly impossible it was. Back then, he never bothered because the woman was sealed, but right now, he could just go and ask the woman about her eyes. He knew that there was a zero chance that he would get an answer, but it would be better than not trying.

"So, she's extremely powerful, had a demonic energy, her mysterious blade, plus her special eyes." Mallard elaborated. No wonder the woman called herself a god.

"Yes, but for some reason, she always vanished whenever she used her demonic energy. Ala-gramps theorized that maybe, she cannot handle the pressure of her own powers, but that was only a speculation, no one was fully able to tell why."

"She sure had a lot of secrets." Finally gaining his speech back, Claudius went on to say what he wanted. "It makes you wonder why. I mean, most strong beings never actually cared to hide their strenght. Some show it off in sheer arrogance, some because because they were unable to control it and some because they believed that no one could really do anything even if they were aware."

"She was indeed an enigma." Bordeaux nodded agreeing to young Claudius words.

"The only person in this world who knew more about her was none other than Lady Isabel."

"So that means, other than her, nobody knows much about Celeste?"

Mormont shook his head. "Other than the Grandmaster, Isabel know her at a more personal level." He cannot help, but smile. When Celeste was still friendly and easy going, the four of them were best of friends. She even persuaded him to go woman hunting as Joram was not into that sort of thing.

"Two things that will never change about her was that: she would always be against Lukedonia's laws and she will never bow to anyone." Isumbras sighed. How he wished Celeste just stayed the way she was. Then she wouldn't have to be sealed for such a long time. But he knew that only a miracle can make that happen.

"Can she be trusted? She was sealed for over two millenias after a failed attempt to kill her. Won't she seek revenge?" Claudius had a serious tone. Anyone could think as he was, even Bordeaux seemed to agree with him.

Mormont and Isumbras merely shared a look and chuckled. "Celeste does not hold grudges. She does not do revenge. But her disliked to the deities had obviously reached new bounds." That was not good at all. But the deities must have known about this. Otherwise, they would never have released her. If Celeste does get her sword back, there will be fireworks in the Royal Palace.

"And the Grand Master? He was sent to deal with her once. Would she not be angry with him?"

"You are saying that because so far she had been constantly insulting him?"

The questioner nodded. Claudius really wanted to know why she acted like that.

"No, the only reason why she disliked Ala-gramps was because he always followed Lukedonia's laws even when they were unfair. Let me tell you what she once said to Ala-gramps: Alaric, you are a woman, a wife to Lukedonia. A wife does what the husband commanded, as long as it pleased him. If your husband told you he was going to bring his friends for a threesome, you would simply open your legs wide, and say, as long as it pleased my husband. If your husband tells you to go protitute yourself because he was broke, you would run along to do that. As long as it pleased the husband. Do not expect me to be a whore for Lukedonia just because you are one."

There was a few minutes of silence before all the Commanders burst out of manner. Well, Bordeaux laughed albeit in a dignified manner. It took them almost a minute to collect themselves and turned completely serious.

"You are joking, right?" Mallard couldn't help, but questioned what he just heard. As fas as he knew, anyone who dared say such atrocious thing in front the the grand master was already one ticket away from eternal bliss.

"No." Mormont shook his head. Memories of that faithful day flooded his mind. That was the day when he thought he would die young.

"Did she actually said it?" As a noble, Bordeaux was calm, but he was sweating bullets. It would not be nice should someone saw him on that state.

"Yes, we were there when she said it. I had never seen Alaric-sensei so infuriated before that day. Once Celeste opened her mouth, the Grand Master started unconsciously releasing his power to higher proportions and released almost half of his powers. But Celeste did not stop. All of us, the side viewers would have been possibly killed if Celeste had not gone away while the Grand Master was still frozen in anger." Isumbras couldn't help, but shudder. He never wanted to experience that ever again.

"We also had to run away. We only heard a large explosion that almost shooked Lukedonia, but we never looked back."

Mallard streightend up. His back was already aching, but he still needed to know more informations. "How was she able to stand before the Grand master after that?"

"She said that she was quitting the Order before she disappeared for years. Since then, whenever they would meet, Celeste would always insult sensei. That was how Ala-gramps got used to it."

The Commanders then continued to drink their sake in a comfortable silence. They were still digesting what had been said so far in this small meeting. Celeste was one mysterious former Commander. Her dislike of Lukedonia would explain why she refused to take the position again. She had quit it because she disagreed with the way things were done. Nothing had changed so far, so there was no reason for her to return to the fold again.

"She was similar to Kayden in some ways." Ivan Bordeaux suddenly stated earning the others to look at him. The reddish tint on his cheeks indicated that he was already tipsy, but he held his ground.

"Both desired to become god. While Kayden surely was hungry for power, he does not make it up for his intellectual capacity. Not to forget that he had demons by his side." He secretly pinched himself inorder to stay awake. He was not used to drinking, but out of respect, he drank it anyways.

Meanwhile, Claudius was gritting his teeth upon hearing the name of the traitor. "That crazy bastard! He knew he cannot take on the whole of Lukedonia so he made a pact with the demons!" It was obvious that the young sir had anger issues with Kayden that needed to be resolved. The only way to solve them, though, was to give Kayden the young Commander so he could murder him.

"They may have the same goal, but Celeste was not power hungry. She really did became a deity. She had her own dimension with spirit particles that were so dense and potent making it hard for even a Commander level to breath unless they were used to the place." Standing up, Mormont walked over to an old looking chest before pulling out an entire bottle of sake. He was glad though that his seargent always made sure to fill it up or else it would be a horror of the night.

"She also once mentioned that she had control over life and death, but no one was ever able to confirm it. Even though I find it hard to believe, I know Celeste would never say it unless it was true." Filling their cups, he begun to inhale the sweet aroma before consuming it whole.

"Life and death?" Now this was another golden piece of information. Mallard couldn't help, but marvel at the news. Their were endless possibilities that the woman possessed and he desired to know as much as he could.

"Was that even possible? That was beyond what all of us here can do. Or anyone on that matter." Raising an eyebrow, Claudius was beginning to doutb what he had just heard. He could accept her being powerful, but life and death?

"Perhaps she never said things just for the sake. However, control over life and death is impossible. No one had that kind of power. If she was indeed telling the truth, then why hadn't she proved it to you?" There was clear disbelief in Bordeaux voice. No one could ever believe that someone have control over life and death. If one believed that tale, then something must have been wrong with them. If Mormont had said that the deities had that kind of power, then it would have been believable because they were the rulers of this realm. The most powerful beings.

"I also agree with Sir Bordeaux. It was impossible. Even I cannot believe it, unless I saw it with my own eyes." Claudius had a thoughtful look on his face. Nothing seemed to be impossible for that woman.

Meanwhile, Mallard was in thought. Mormont was right, a woman like Celeste would never say she can do something, unless she could. This begged a question: if she had that ability, why hadn't she proved it? Was it simply because she did not want to or could not. He could theorize it as having a powerful attack. Without the required power for the attack, it becomes impossible to do it. Could it be the same for Celeste? Could it be that there were some draw backs that followed for using that kind of power?