by Ross Buzzell
With Konner distracted Xero focuses on his next target, his wife and child, who are huddled back in the corner of the room. Xero enters the room and approaches both of them, Konner’s back is facing the door as he enters, it would have been an easy kill for Xero but since his brother would no longer be able to suffer the next best thing will be his son and what better way to make him suffer than to slay his family. Xero draws his blade back as he closes in on the woman; she recoils in fear and screams out for her husband.
“KONNER!”
Xero swings his blade down from over his head, a concussive wave slams into Xero’s back but does not slow him down or affect him in any real way as his blade is locked on his mark. Faster than Xero can see Konner appears between him and his family with his Energynium weapon drawn and blocks the attack, the contact send painful vibrations into Xero’s hands. Konner’s sword sputters as they are in a blade lock; glowing droplets of white hot energy erupt from both swords as they grind against one another. Xero makes eye contact with Konner, he can see fear gripping his soul, but something else, a determination nearly completely masks that fear and it is the kind of determination Xero feels at this very moment to slay the last real threat of the Lorian family, he would hunt down the sister later.
Konner takes a deep breath and pushes against Xero, it takes him by surprise, he was pushing against Konner with most of his strength and yet the shove delivered to his weapon forces Xero to slide backwards across the room a few meters.
“Get out of here! Find the Triad and tell them what is happening!”
Konner yells to the woman, she wraps her arms around her son and tries to run, Xero watches as she steps on a piece of shattered glass and slips, Xero takes his chance and dashes towards her fully prepared to slay both of them but is blocked once again by Konner, this time the blow sends Konner sliding backwards. Xero watches as Konner uses the momentum to run up the wall and leaps off of it to flip over Xero and swings his sword at the banished prince’s head. Quickly Xero dodges the attack but uses the momentum to carry him into another attack, Xero swings his sword at Konner’s head as fast and as hard as he can, nearly losing sight of the weapons movement himself. The ancient sword stops just inches from its target as Konner deploys a spear from his weapon hilt which blocks Xero once again. Xero is hardly able to track his opponent as Konner grabs the bottom of his spear and uses leverage to force Xero’s sword away from himself, which causes Xero to spin like a top. Seizing an opening Xero grabs a piece of debris mid rotation and uses his momentum to fling it at Konner’s wife and child. The debris finds its mark and she hits the ground.
A flash of blue catches Xero’s eye and he dodges backwards as Konner’s spear lunges past his head. Xero engages his nephew once again, changing his stance to better suit a defense against the spear. Using swift blocks and parries Xero is able to ward off Konner’s jabs, he is impressed with how swift and how strong this boy is, he almost feels bad for intending to kill him. Konner’s attacks begin to hit harder and come faster as he unleashes himself on the banished prince but Xero is able to keep up, blocking each attack like he is an impenetrable wall. He keeps his elbows near his body and makes small movements which allow him to hold off the onslaught.
After a few moments Xero notices Konner realizing he is not going to get past his defenses and that is when Konner changes up his style, he begins to use heavy attacks, kinds designed to ware opponents down, it is a good strategy, except Xero does not feel fatigue, since meeting Dark Seclusion he hasn’t felt anything but vengeance. These attacks leave Konner open, Xero notices this and deflects one of Konner’s strikes upwards before jabbing at Konner’s open ribcage. In the span of a heartbeat, and to Xero’s surprise, Konner spins and changes his spear into a massive mace. His speed catches Xero off guard and before his sword can move to strike once again Konner slams his mace into the end of Xero’s blade with such force he feels it wrenched from his hand in a painful twist before sliding across the floor. Slightly stunned by the fact someone had managed to disarm him Xero does not expect, nor see the massive mace closing in on his face. The contact is intense; he has not felt anything with such force since he had absorbed the planet destroying mine in his younger days. Opening his hand Xero calls his weapon back to his hand as the force causes him to whip off to the side and before Xero can right himself he feels a familiar cold sensation overtake the center of his chest and run straight through his body. The attack does not hurt but the fact that such a direct blow was landed stuns him for a moment, he staggers back before dropping to his knees, largely as a ploy to get his opponents guard down. Xero’s blade falls from his hand once more as he changes tactics, like Konner had by changing weapons.
Xero watches as Konner releases his weapon and looks back at his wife and child with hope that he had defeated Xero, this brings a twisted sense of amusement to the banished prince as a dark, twisted laugh begins to bubble up from his gut and echo through the bed chambers. Xero pulls himself to his feet and stands towering over Konner, whose weapon is still in his chest. Konner slowly turns around; he steps back in a shocked surprise as Xero reaches up and grabs the hilt of the weapon. Tauntingly he pulls the glowing blade from his chest as he speaks to his opponent in such a dark tone that he visibly sees the shiver run down Konner’s spine.
“You think your puny weapons can kill me boy?”
Xero pulls the weapon completely free from his chest.
“Thanks to your father I cannot die!”
He roars, Konner dives for Xero’s sword but with a single unbridled strike Xero hits Konner in the back of the head with the hilt of his own weapon which causes him to fall to the ground. Xero watches for a brief moment as he tries to get up but the blow keeps him staggering, fumbling to get to his feet, his groans of agony filling the air. Xero turns to Konner’s wife and child, their escape is blocked off by the shadow monsters that had accompanied him on the attack. It is at this point he wonders where The Dark Titan and Disa’ani are, but not for long, as he starts to walk towards the terrified woman. Xero draws back Konner’s sword and with a single swift swipe of his arm he aims for the boy first but in a heroic act his mother turns and takes the initial attack to save her son. The sword passes through her like she was not even there, and her lifeless body falls to the ground, not quite cut clean in half but almost. There is no blood as the weapon he is wielding either cauterized or completely evaporated her internal liquids leaving the pungent stench of charred flesh filling the room. The little boy begins to cry in terror, Xero feels nothing for the pathetic sight before him and with a single swipe he aims his weapon for the boys’ neck. As the energy sword makes contact there is a bright, nearly blinding, flash of light that nearly blinds Xero and as it fades the boy is completely gone. Xero smirks to himself, such a small form must not have been able to handle the slice given by the weapon and instead of cauterizing or vaporizing parts of his body like what happened to his mother the attack must have caused the boy to sublimate.
Xero turns slowly, intentionally as the flames begin to consume the room behind him. Turning he feels the heat of the fire against his back, it is nothing compared to the inferno that burns within him. The scent of battle, of death brings a twisted joy to his heart, if he still had one, and he begins to walk towards Konner, the broken and beaten new High King. Xero looks at the tattered armor, the bruised and bleeding face of his kin and has only one thought enter his mind as he reaches out and grabs the breastplate of the planets mightiest warrior. “Finally, an end to the line of Lorian.” He lifts Konner off the ground so they are eye to eye, the High King is dead weight but is as light as a feather to Xero.
“Your planet is mine now boy, your people are mine, and finally… after all these millennia I will have my vengeance on your fathers’ exile.”
At that moment Xero notices a change in Konner, a spark in the deepest recesses of his eyes, his jaw clenches and his body goes ridged as the High Kings’ hands wrap around Xero’s wrist so tightly that he actually fe
els the pressure of the squeeze.
“You cannot kill me, not here Xero because if you do I will crack, if I crack this planet will be reduced to ash and YOU, YOU WILL GET NOTHING!”
Konner roars, there is an interesting darkness in his voice, one Xero recognizes all too well as it is similar to the darkness that has now consumed him. Konner shakes with rage as he glares at Xero. A proud smirk gradually makes its way to Konners bloodied lips he begins to taunt Xero.
“You know what that means don’t you.”
Xero does, but it is no matter, the crack would not harm him as he had survived something with nearly as much destructive power before. Xero drops Konner. Konner falls to his knees trying to catch his breath. Turning Xero takes a few steps to his sword and picks it up before re-sheathing it on his back. He turns to Konner, glancing down at the Energynium weapon in his hand he begins to focus, manipulating the magnetic containment field within the weapon the sword turns into a spear and Xero looks back at Konner.
“I may not be able to kill you with my weapon, but tell me Konner Lorian, will you crack for yours?”
A wicked grin tugs itself against Xero’s lips once more as he aims at the glowing family crest on Konner’s chest. He relishes the idea of watching not only the light go out in the High King’s eyes, but the crest flicker and die with the last breath of its host. With all of his might he drives the spear at Konner who quickly, and to his surprise, puts up and energy shield which causes the spear to glance away from its intended target but still manages to hit the High King. The sight of Konner’s own weapon driven through his side impaling him nearly clean through frustrates Xero, he wanted this over and in his impatience Konner takes him by surprise and rips the weapon from his body and shoves it so hard that Xero is forced to take a few steps backwards. The moment that happens the shadow monsters begin to flood the room. In nearly the blink of an eye the nearly defeated High King presses a number of glyphs on his bracer before jamming his thumb into the family crest. Xero’s eyes widen.
“NO!”
He roars and leaps towards Konner as a massive surge of white light erupts from Konner’s body as he cracks; attempting to take the planet with him but to injured to reach true critical mass the explosion encompasses Xero as it incinerates the monsters and the palace. A wave slams into him so hard that Xero drops Konners weapon and flies backwards and before his vision can compensate for the light he feels his body slam into the jagged rocks of the mountainside near where the attack at begun several hundred meters away. Xero does not just slam into the rock face; he hits it with such force his body is buried inside the stone. The explosion, the impact with the mountain does not even scratch the banished prince and after a few seconds to orient himself Xero throws a hand forward, followed by a foot and breaks himself free from the cold embrace of stone. Xero steps from the mountain to see Konner kneeling over what would have been his wife’s corpse had he not just incinerated her. He sees the look of defeat and heartbreak in the High King, Without a moment to lose Xero draws his sword from his back and leaps into the air, reaching his apex half way between where he was and where Konner is. Xero begins to drop his weapon, aiming it at Konner’s head, looking to bisect him vertically and just as his sword it about to reach its target Konner vanishes in a flash of blue light, having opened a portal and pulled himself and quite a bit of debris through too.
Chapter: 2
Xero’s sword slams into the ground and imbeds itself, missing its target. Rage erupts within Xero as the only true threat to continuing the Lorian line has escaped. He rips his sword from the ground; the rage begins to emanate off of him creating so much static that small rocks around him begin to levitate a few inches from the ground.
“NOOOOOO!”
Xero roars, shadow beasts begin to form around him and in a feverish rage Xero swipes at them, left and right his sword passes through them causing them to flicker slightly as some of their darkness is chipped off into an evaporating cloud but they are not truly injured. They begin to hiss and aback away from the banished prince who desperately wants to kill something, anything. The monsters prepare to attack Xero when a familiar, commanding voice rings out.
“STAND DOWN!”
The Dark Titan roars. Seething Xero looks up to see the Dark Titan, his weapon on his side with the handle retracted into itself. Xero points his blade at the Dark Titan.
“Your monsters were of no help and he escaped!”
He yells, the Dark Titan slowly walks down the charred rubble of the once beautiful palace, now just a pile of smoldering ash and partially destroyed walls. The Dark Titan gets close enough to Xero he reaches out and places a single finger on his sword and begins to push down. Xero uses all of his strength but he is as successful at preventing the Dark Titans actions as Konner’s wife was to stop his. The Dark Titan rapidly extends his arm, forcing the sword down and nearly pulling it from Xero’s hands.
“You let him escape Xero, and with him still alive a Lorian is still technically on the throne of Boron. That means our plans are unable to come to fruition. My master instructed me while you were busy failing your mission to send you back to Earth where he instantly felt Konner’s influence begin to exert itself and kill him before he has a chance to raise an army and bring them here.”
Xero grits his teeth, if Konner was going to return he wanted to stay and help cripple the planet so when he severed his nephews head it would be overlooking an obliterated people. His fingers grip tightly around his trusted sword, it takes every ounce of willpower he has not to drive the weapon through the Dark Titans heart, not that it would do any good as Xero’s powers have been influenced by magic the Dark Titans, which were considerable in the first place even to Xero, are amplified thousands of times over.
Xero begrudgingly sheaths his sword and looks over Caelum, droves of dark creatures charge at the city from all sides, screams begin to fill the air and weapons fire can be seen erupting all over the city.
“And what of this world?”
The Dark Titan follows Xero’s gaze who notes the hint of a smirk forming on his lips at the sounds of Boronians being slaughtered by his dark army. Xero knows he must be enjoying this due to the wars that had been fought between the races over the eons.
“I will cripple it in your absence, bring it to its knees and make it bleed so that when Konner is dead and you return we can continue my master’s plans.”
Xero turns his back to the Dark Titan; he has no care for Dark Seclusions’ plans, or the Titans’. His only goal is to wipe out the Lorian line and if Konner’s sister survives the onslaught currently happening in the dead lands he will take care of her when he returns. After that both the Dark Titan and Dark Seclusion will fall at Xero’s hand and he will rule Boron as he sees fit. Glancing back over his shoulder he side eyes the Dark Titan, this is not something he would share with either of them, they wish to wash the cosmos red, he just wants to twist the dagger in his dead brothers heart.
“Fine.”
He finally murmurs as he nods his head.
“I can’t access what I need here to make the jump, send me back and I will return when the job is done.”
With that the Dark Titan marches up behind Xero, he places a hand on the back of the banished prince who hears him mutter some incantation under his breath and with a powerful shove Xero stumbles forward and finds himself in a dark room. The scent of wet stone and mud fills the air, the soft dripping of water against wet mud splashes, echoing through the darkness, he is in a cave. On the far side, out of the darkness stands a shrine with candles lit on either side, before the shrine stands the robed Dark Seclusion, a pet snake is coiled over his shoulders. His voice echoes through the cavern as it reverberates from his mask, he keeps his back towards Xero.
“Konner escaped you. How could you have failed so completely?”
Xero clinches his jaw, this being, whatever he was is no longer human, was with him for nearly a thousand years, trained him, taught him the knowledge, secrets an
d nature of magic. Xero even tried his hand at the craft with the explicit blessing and intervention of the source of all magic in this world but was unable to perform even the most basic of spells as his soul, the conduit of magic, seems to be gone.
“He was stronger than foretold Dark One, it was like he fought with the strength and speed of dozens of Boronians. I did wound him.”
Dark Seclusion slowly turns to face Xero, his rotation is so smooth that it is as if he is levitating, the pits of the mask glare at him.
“The Queen gave you and the Titan trouble and she is far weaker than Konner!”
