by Aeon Solo
“Stop this! Come back to us!” Sonje pleaded sympathetically.
“Viden died when you left him with…” he was flustered, lost for the words, “That monster!” he yelled furiously at Sonje.
“I’m sorry Viden, but you would have done the same,” he responded hastily.
Viden’s face twisted with abhorrence. “You’re wrong! I would have died for you,” he shouted sadly. He blamed Sonje for his suffering, but Sonje could not prevent his fate.
“You are my cousin Viden, I loved you, but now you have become something you would despise!” he yelled with great sorrow. Viden latched deep onto his eyes for a moment, the words echoing through his mind. He was caught in a battle of his own. He was being torn apart, unsure on who he was anymore. Monstah stood at the bottom of the ramp. Viden turned and saw him, he then faced Sonje again. His thoughtful gaze turned sour again.
“I will become greater than all the Imperials, greater than you,” he snarled. Sonje inhaled a heavy breath, deeply saddened by his words. He was the Anu-Krai now.
“So be it,” he muttered in response. They clashed blades once more, they traded multiple strikes, the Knight saw an opening. He blocked one of Sonje’s strikes and swatted away his weapon and in an instance, drove his fiery blade through the abdomen of Sonje. Sonje dropped his weapon, his rage became grief as Sonje slumbered to his knees.
“You promised.”
“And you let me to suffer regardless,” he whispered back guiltily; a tear flowed down his face. He held Sonje’s head, gently guiding him to the surface. Sonje grasped his hand, the light of his eyes dipped. Sonje’s hand slipped through his fingers. Viden, was gone.
Monstah smiled beneath his mask, the Imperial army cried with grief and hatred. They darted toward the Knight to attack. This was followed by an assault by his troops and the two groups of soldiers began to battle. Anu-Krai lingered disorientated for a moment, his attention regained as some Imperials fell dead at his feet. Monstah actually guarded him, a flood of arrows protected him from an attack. But it wasn’t for him. No, it was mere anticipation to get blood on his hands that resulted in the protection.
He defended himself against the oncoming assailants. The clearing became filled with the casualties of war, a defensive line held strong at the treeline. After thirty minutes of fighting in the clearing, thousands of Naprador troops lay dead, to the five hundred Imperial casualties. Some of the Naprador men cried for their mothers in the chaos. Maimed and gutted in the horror. The Imperials were brutal even in their deaths, they yearned for that valiant death. Anu-Krai was lost in his mind, he scanned around him. He glanced to Sonje, the cries of terror flooded his ears. But, the cries were silent in the chaos, his senses numbed. He saw a man holding his exposed guts, the man, one of his soldiers, squealed for his mother. Like a lost boy. It was horriffuc. “Krai!” Monstah yelled, seizing him by the shoulder. Puling him from the shock. “We push forward.”
“Retreat, retreat back to the village!” an Imperial commander yelled to his troops, the Naprador forces pushed them back from the treeline.
“Forward, we push forward!” Anu-Krai screamed to his men as they broke the defensive line. Imperial soldiers fled through the forest to protect their homeland. The civilians had barricaded themselves in their homes. Many adolescents and women littered the streets with weapons in hand, led by Anya.
Twenty minutes later Imperial troops escaped the forest in the retreat and prepared to barrage the enemy with arrows when they emerged. Anu-Krai picked up the Sword of Anu which loomed on the ground, he examined it for a moment and returned it to its home onboard the Mikasa. His troops began to push through the forest and toward the settlements.
“The toughest part of the battle is now complete, we take the kingdom Krai!” Monstah shouted to him from outside the craft. He and Monstah followed the troops through the forest. After thirty minutes they began to emerge from the forest, bombarded by a flurry of arrows and spears as they left; many perished. They were bottlenecked again, but it soon waned.
Once the Imperial barrage was broken, the defence was spread thin through the village. Anu-Krai and Monstah eventually emerged from the forest. Anu-Krai roamed through the village searching for one person, until his attention was taken by a woman behind him.
“Viden!” she screamed. He paused for a moment. The voice was foreign yet known. A voice he hadn’t heard in such a long time. A voice that was burned from his mind by the torture. He turned to face the woman behind him. He immediately fired an arrow from the Bow of Margan. The arrow grazed her face, leaving an ever so slight mark on her cheek. The arrow impaled a Naprador soldier behind her, who was about to strike her down. She pivoted as the assailant fell to the ground, holding her cheek which bled a little. She faced her son with thankful tears in her eyes.
“My boy, what did they do to you?” she cried, she ran to him and hugged him powerfully. He responded in kind; they almost crushed the life out of each other. She placed her hand over his face.
“Look at you, all grown up, my handsome boy,” she said with a smile. She passed her fingers over his scars. He closed his eyes, tears hit her palm.
“Mum, I’m so sorry,” he whispered with great sorrow and guilt. He hated himself, what he had become.
“I know you are,” she replied caringly.
“I don’t know who I am anymore,” he said, tormented with grief from the lives he had taken in his time serving the Archon.
“You’re my boy, you always will be. I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you, that I let you go out that night,” she sobbed, feeling responsible for what happened to him. The battle continued to wage around them.
“It’s not your fault, it was Sonje who left me to die at their hands,” he answered with an elevated voice, recollecting that night. “I was right about them; they are not gods,” he continued. She gasped for a moment in disbelief at the information she was hearing.
“What are they then?” she pondered. An explosion radiated nearby, momentarily taking their attention.
“Aliens from another world, there are thousands of worlds out there with life,” he retorted, a glint in his eye. Ever since he was a child, he had pondered on the question of whether his world was the only one with life, no one believed him, not even his parents.
“Oh Viden, still looking to the stars,” she said with a smile. “Come home to us, please,” she begged, so they could try and live a normal life again. He turned away for a moment.
“I can’t,” he answered, “I cannot betray the Archon, they are all I have.”
“That’s not true!” she cried, “Come home to us, we miss you so much, I thought about you every day since they took you.” She grabbed his arm whilst he was still turned.
“Please,” she begged. He pivoted to face her, having made his choice. His face dropped as an arrow flew into her back.
“Viden,” she whispered, she fell forward with the impact. He clutched her to prevent her hitting the ground.
“No,” he said, horrified. She placed her right hand on his left cheek.
“Protect your father,” she whispered as she passed away in his arms. He cried, the greatest pain he had ever felt, more than any torture from the Archon. He squeezed her tight, refusing to let go. It was a pain so potent it rivalled nothing he had ever experienced. Love, the cruellest.
He glanced over to the council chambers and Monstah exited. Knowing his father’s fate, the pain doubled. He crumbled to the ground holding his mother. Now he truly was alone. He was told his parents were dead by the Archon, but now they were. Before his eyes, his conquest taking their lives. He was completely broken, the Archon’s manipulation successful, he had no one else to turn to now. He could fully commit to the Archon’s plans. In a fit of rage, he killed the soldier who killed his mother, despite the pleas, along with multiple Imperials around him. He hurled his blade at one, impaling him. Arrows deflected off him, they missed his exposed face. He barged the Imperial Archer to the ground. He slammed the s
oldiers’ face with his own helmet. Blood dripped from the jagged edges. The face unrecognisable, a battered piece of meat and bone.
“My lord,” his comrade commented, seeing him kill some of his own. He grabbed his dagger and sliced through his comrade’s abdomen, hurling it at another nearby once he was finished. He lost it, lost everything. Monstah loved it, he revelled at the Knights despair. He didn’t care that he was attacking his own men.
Eventually he regained his self-control, blood, not his own, sprawled across his face. He breathed heavy with exhaustion and fury.
Whilst he was conversing with his mother, Monstah entered the council chambers to face Scyfer. He travelled through the building and entered the chamber where Scyfer awaited. Ten men lay dead throughout the room, slain by the hands of Scyfer, who waited confidently for his next foe. Monstah approached him, analysing the dead men throughout the room.
“So, the Imperial I’ve heard so much about,” he said. Scyfer elevated from his seat atop the oval table and stood defiantly in the face of the monster.
“And you are?” he said, mocking the Anuai warrior. Monstah laughed slightly in response.
“I’m the one who took your child,” he sneered, aggravating Scyfer who equipped his sword. He stepped out into the open area of the room and they stalked each other, analysing their target. They traded multiple strikes.
Monstah toyed with him for a while. “Impressive,” he said whilst they traded more strikes, “For a human.” Monstah overpowered and disarmed him. Scyfer fell to the ground completely overwhelmed by Monstah’s strength.
“What are you!?” he exclaimed. Monstah removed his mask and screeched a terrifying battle cry.
“You are one ugly bastard!” he yelled, disgusted by Monstah’s appearance. With a final blow, Scyfer was executed, the legendary Imperial warrior, along with his brethren lay dead throughout the kingdom. The war was almost over. He accepted his fate, no fear, just disgust for the beast that took his son. Monstah admired that in fairness.
Monstah left the chambers, to the dismay of the Knight who was sobbing with his mother in his arms at that moment. Monstah glanced in his direction, his mask re-equipped. He saw the anguish and smiled, knowing his manipulation was now complete.
A short while later all the Imperial warriors were defeated. The Naprador forces had taken heavy losses, only five hundred, of 10,000 remained.
The civilians were being slain by the soldiers, to the disgust of Anu-Krai. He confronted Monstah enraged. “Monster! Stop this immediately,” he screamed at the Anuai warrior.
The beast mocked him. “No!” he snapped back. Viden became enraged and fired arrows upon his own troops who were engaging in the killing of innocents. The rest stopped with fear of being killed by the Knight. Monstah grabbed him by the throat and threw him extremely far, he crashed into the barren stony surface.
He bounced up and fired arrows upon the beast from the Bow of Margan, the arrows did not penetrate his sturdy armour.
“Your weapons cannot penetrate my armour, pitiful human!” he exclaimed ferociously.
“Evil, murdering bastard!” Viden screeched, the soldiers around them observed, surprised at what they were seeing. Two gods to them, were at war with one-another in front of their eyes.
“Evil is a point of view, you are evil in the eyes of many.” Monstah answered.
His expression of anger morphed to guilt, and he unequipped his weapons.
“I’m nothing like you,” he responded callously. He walked away. The civilians whose lives were now spared, looked at him with great sorrow, he glanced at some of them nearby.
When Anu-Krai left, his attention was caught by an Imperial laughing on the ground nearby in the pile of death.
“Still that pathetic boy, still a loser, perhaps you’re as dumb as a bag of rocks, right Viden,” the voice remarked with distress, mocking the Knight. The Imperial coughed loudly, blood seeped from his mouth.
He gritted his teeth and breathed deeply as he turned slowly towards the Imperial. The man, severely injured struggled, but reached his feet. The Knight picked up an Imperial sword from the ground beside him and drove it through the man, who was unable to stop the attack. He gasped, losing his breath and began to keel over.
“At least I was right,” he whispered into the Imperials ear.
“They’ll kill you,” the Imperial murmured with difficulty, holding onto the Knight’s robe. He slumped to the ground motionless.
“They already have,” he whispered back.
Monstah told the men to stop killing the civilians, persuaded by the Knight. The troops began the return journey home.
Monstah planted a portable explosive device fuelled by nuclear fusion. He entered the Mikasa along with Anu-Krai and they entered the atmosphere. The Knight was sitting by a small window onlooking the Artsul kingdom. He placed his hand over it and shook his head with grief. Once the troops were out of range, Monstah activated the nuclear device. He watched his former kingdom explode in a fiery inferno.
“No!” he exclaimed. He entered the cockpit quickly to confront Monstah.
“Why would you do such a thing?” he screeched.
“Our orders were to destroy Artsul. Listen to me human, I will kill you where you stand if you continue to defy me,” Monstah roared in response.
His face contorted with rage and disgust for the Anuai warrior before him.
“I promise you, I will kill you one day,” he stated firmly with confidence.
Monstah laughed hysterically. “I’m waiting for it,” he answered snidely. He equipped a small electronic stun device and fired it upon the Knight, disabling him. He spasmed on the floor in distress. Monstah continued to laugh at him and they quickly returned to Naprador, travelling thousands of miles per hour.
The soldiers flinched at the sound of the explosion nearby, the shockwave forcing some to the ground. The flash of light almost blinded them, like a flash of a thousand suns. Artsul burned at the temperature of a star, as the elements released an extraordinary amount of energy.
The Mikasa landed by the pyramid and Monstah left, the Sword of Anu in one hand and the Knight in the other. He still hadn’t recovered from the stun gun. They entered the throne room to meet their master. Monstah threw the Knight to the ground and placed the Sword of Anu on the ground in front of him, then knelt.
“My lord, we have completed the destruction of Artsul, Agarta is now ours for the taking.” Anu-Krai picked himself up slightly.
“I got that sword, not him!” he bellowed, ensuring the Archon understood it was him who defeated Sonje. “I got that sword,” he continued. The Archon analysed them for a moment.
“What happened?” the Archon enquired, wondering why the Knight was visibly distressed and weak.
“This bastard shot me with that, that thing!” he yelled in anger. The electricity still coursing through his bones. He and Monstah gave one-another an intense look of displeasure.
“Monstah, leave us,” the Archon stated.
“But, my lord,” he flustered in response.
“Go!” the Archon yelled, Monstah stood and began to exit by order of his master. Anu-Krai’s breath became heavy, evil itself flowed through his veins. He grabbed the Sword of Anu off the ground beside him and leapt to his feet. His target, Monstah. He began to run at Monstah; the Archon grinned ecstatically beneath his guise. Viden leapt toward the back of Monstah but was crippled by a blast from a stun gun again. Monstah pivoted back to see the commotion, he saw him on the ground in spasm, centimetres away. He glanced at the Archon who gestured with his hand to continue the exit. The Knight groaned in agony and spasm.
“Stop shooting me, with that thing!” he yelled, so filled with rage and anguish. The Archon strolled toward him.
“I admire your courage Krai, you really are quite a handful. I know you and him despise one-another but that hate, it’s what will make you powerful,” he explained calmly, “Conflict is the single most important thing in this reality, without it
one becomes stagnant and weak, your conflict with him will ensure you evolve and become what you are meant to be.”
The stun did not last as long this time due to the settings. Anu-Krai, with difficultly stood to his feet. His hair was messy, blood, dirt and sweat still covered his face. He looked to the ground avoiding eye contact with the Archon.
“You told me my parents had died,” he uttered sorrowfully. The Archon placed his massive hand on his left shoulder.
“I thought they had,” he responded, that was a lie.
“She died in my arms,” he cried, looking to his hands as tears seeped from his eyes.
“And that Monster!” he exclaimed, pivoting his head in the direction of the now missing Monstah, “Killed my father!” he cried again. He slumped to the ground with grief. The Archon, seeing his destroyed servant offered sympathy.
“I know how you feel Krai, I too have experienced what you have and more,” he explained softly. He rubbed his head slightly and returned to the throne. Anu-Krai was surprised at the somewhat gentle nature of his otherwise cold leader. He returned to his feet
“I did as you commanded,” he declared.
“Yes, you did,” the Archon answered. He unveiled a- new mask, one without the three scars indented within it. A completely fresh mask in his hands, “Now Anu-Krai, king of the Knights of Anu, I gift you this mask and declare you the most powerful human warrior in all Agarta.” A revitalised Anu-Krai stood proud before his master.
“Thank you, my lord,” he stated with glee, but still tainted by his sorrow. The Archon strolled toward him and equipped the mask to Anu-Krai’s head. The darkness encompassed him, it latched onto his skull. It separated him from his human counterparts, but he liked that, the last of Viden floated away.
At last he had achieved what he set out to achieve, but it cost him everything. For a short time, he could take pleasure in this accomplishment.
“Two of the remaining three kingdoms have surrendered and joined us, only one kingdom, Kinana, remains. Once we take this kingdom, the conquest of this planet will be complete, we will create a world order and begin our takeover of the rest of the galaxy,” the Archon articulated to the Knight, who nodded with acknowledgement.
