Khael blocks with his hand, the knife pierces, and is wedged in his palm. Using this brief blind spot, the King rushes towards him, stabbing him in the thigh and wrapping his legs around his neck, stabbing the other knife in his other leg. Khael pulls the knife out of his hand, grabs the King’s leg, and holds him up by his leg, driving the knife down into his inner thigh, slicing a chunk of flesh out.
A heel crashes into Khael’s eye-socket, and a knife is stabbed through his heart.
The King’s teeth chatter and crack as Khael slams him from the legs, jaw-first into the ground. Khael had reorganised his organs the moment of the attack. The King’s jaw slams down, biting into his own tongue as blood spurts. His thigh is oozing blood also. Before Khael can knee him in the back of the head, the King rolls over and dashes back towards him closely, engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
He punches at his nose, Khael weaves under his arm, closing the distance, ramming his knee into the King’s stomach. The King holds Khael's knee to his stomach and trips his back leg, mounting him. He slashes almost a million times in an eyeblink at Khael's face.
Khael had dodged all but the last and had a wound straight down from his left eye to his chin. Khael grabs the King's shoulder, lifting his leg, flipping him over, and mounting him instead. He pushes his forearm to the King's throat as he chokes. The King raises his knee, flipping Khael over the top as they both get back to their feet. The King is now overwhelming him with speed.
Each kick, elbow, or punch. Khael can only parry or evade with no time to strike back. The King successfully lands a blow on the chest of Khael; his fist sinks in and is being absorbed.
Khael crashes his elbow down on the King's arm, snapping it in two. The King falls to his knees and wraps his arm around Khael's leg, and the veins in his neck bulge. He lifts Khael and slams him headfirst into the ground.
Two horns tear through Khael’s scalp, 4 insect like wings slice through his clothes. He transformed partially into some strange hybrid of a creature not known to this land.
From the Southwest. A storm is rushing towards the Kingdom of Cairneach. The wind is howling, and the buildings are being torn apart. Immensely powerful winds are tearing the roofs off the buildings and ripping some out of the ground entirely. Shards of glass launch towards the King as he gets up and flips around, dodging with pinpoint precision. Khael flies in the air, and he conjures a ball of fire. He holds it towards his lips and blows on it like a candle.
The King's eyes grow wide, and he covers his face with his arm which was not broken. His eyes dart to the side.
The Southern parts of the castle have been burnt to ash. Khael looks around. The King is nowhere to be seen. The Pazuzu in his mind is giggling mischievously.
Khael turns; the crown is gone from where it sat before their fight. It is missing, along with the King.
The storm is still approaching.
Madarame and Seraphiel walk through Werry.
“I can’t wait to get this all over with and return to the parlour.” Madarame stretches and yawns.
Seraphiel smirks. “Yeah, this is all a bit overwhelming. I’d rather it all be said and done soon, I don’t mind letting Zod hold onto Cairneach a little while”.
Madarame trips on a rock before kicking it off into the distance. They enter a small hamlet and are immediately met with screams.
“Zod, Zod has attacked Cairneach, the castle is ash and the lands torn to shreds”.
What? Already? He destroyed my kingdom.
Seraphiel pauses; he recalls what is most important.
Ash.
He smiles
It must surely be destiny. My kingdom is also purged with fire.
“Nooo!” Madarame cries out, pretending to care about the state of the Kingdom. “My wife! My child!... My wife!” He screams out in the presence of the women. They hardly seem to hear him in their state of mourning. Seraphiel walks up to them. “Why are you all so upset? Your home hasn't been turned to ash? My home was destroyed, and I am emboldened by it not standing here lamenting”.
They don't seem to hear him either.
He carries on regardless. He shouts out his aims and beliefs, and no one cares at all. Madarame watches him, amused as he covers his mouth and laughs.
Yumi and Ryo are trekking through the mountainous regions of Rea. A raven lands on her shoulders. The collar on its neck crackles and a voice is heard through it. “Cairneach is ruined”. She shoos it off. “So soon? I didn’t expect Khael to make his move yet.” Ryo says as he cuts through shrubbery with his sword.
“Yeah, I suppose he was tired of waiting for his glory.”
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“What glory, there's nothing glorifiable in being an appellation.” Ryo freezes, Yumi being one herself, slipped his mind.
“You're right.” Yumi flicks off a caterpillar from her leg. “Nothing special about being chosen for no reason, not like we worked for it”. She takes a swig from her canteen. “Can I be honest?” She says.
“Of course”
“..Nothing” She says solemnly, briefly stopping. She continues on ahead.
A creature resembling a rabbit with thick yellowy white fur and horns hops out from a log. It rolls its paw over the back of its head, licking it like a cat. Yumi crouches and slowly walks towards it. It's a jackalope. She quickly begins patting its head, it bounces up and down at each pat, and its button eyes look at her.
Ryo would rather get a move on and leave this possibly disease-ridden creature alone, but he doesn’t dare speak up, he sways left and right, looking up towards where he thinks the leshy is.
Yumi picks it up under the arms and raises it. She nuzzles the nose against her own and raises it again. “That's enough miss” the jackalope shouts. “Huh?” Yumi says before it kicks its feet at her nose making her drop it. It shot left and right, hopping and diving back into the log. Yumi falls towards the log, sticking her face in the hole trying to get a better look. The Jackalope has vanished.
“Ryo!” She shouts out, short of breath. Ryo stumbles trying to avoid lumps of mud as he runs closer. “Did you find it? I thought the prints led up here.”
“No no, the Jackalope, it spoke and now it's vanished,” she says, leaning deeper into the log, looking for any possible explanation. Ryo rubs his head, not really entirely sure what to say or what to make of the situation. “Erm, okay.” That was the best he could muster. Ryo looked at his watch; it was only an hour until sundown. They needed to make a move as fast as possible. “It’s late we gotta go on ahead, we can’t let another village be ravaged”.
Yumi sighs, gets up, and occasionally looks back at the log. “Okay, I'm coming.” About 40 minutes of walking deeper and deeper into the foliage later, they find a deer skull on the floor. It was shattered and seemed relatively new; it wouldn’t make sense for only the skull to be present scavenger animas would not leave just the skull and be done with the rest so quickly. Ryo lifts his sword and smashes the hilt on the skull. The ground around the skull shakes and ruptures as the Leshy awakens. It did not intend to flee this time; the trees around them were ripped from the roots, and their appearance made them seem to be growing rapidly. They formed a sort of barrier, stopping a retreat. The mud moved about like a creature swimming in it. Yumi sent shrieks through the head of the Leshy as it roared, and a serpentine creature shot out of the mud as she sliced it in two. Ryo was cutting down small men made of wood, which the Leshy had carved. The trees around them began to move in, sharp spikes formed on them. Yumi tried to break the wood with her spear, but it seemed unbreakable. She needed to kill the Leshy quicker than it could kill her. Multiple creatures jumped out of the mud as she cut them down while simultaneously running to the Leshy. She drove the spear through the forehead of the skull, black liquid oozed out and covered her, “Ryo!” she shouts as Ryo turns and swings his broadsword at the wooden neck of the Leshy, he slices it clean off. The skull falls to the floor and is turned to smitherins in seconds by Ryo.
The trees surrounding them sink into the ground.
“Finally, that thing is dead” Ryo wipes the sweat from his eyebrow. He turns to Yumi, who is seemingly under hypnosis or is at least absorbed in something. She is staring at the Jackalope, which is watching from another log. “Bravo!” It shouts, trying to touch its paws presumably to clap. It sits on the log waiting for Yumi to approach before jumping back in. “Wait,” she shouts before running closer and peeking in again; nothing at all. The log is hollow but empty.
—
Seraphiel and Madarame have returned to the parlour finally and with nothing new on their mind but to wait for their next steps.
Hiro walks up to Seraphiel, he pulls out a newspaper and brandishes it in front of Seraphiel.
it depicts the castle grounds scorched and the towns ravaged with wind, a storm is almost present which would certainly spell doom for Cairneach as we know it and its citizens. “Thats…” Seraphiel thinks of something to say. Cairneach will be destroyed the king presumably already has been.
So fast? He thinks
It felt like things were only starting, and that the King would be his ultimate obstacle when faced with the throne. Did he not think to use the crown?
Hiro blabbers, “Aw sorry about that man, guess you’ll have to stay here, I don’t think even Zod will settle down there for a while”. Raising his arms and crossing them behind his head Seraphiel lets out a sigh followed by a, “Just my luck”. He made sure to appear as distraught as possible about the whole thing but in truth, this was perfect.
My kingdom destroyed ready for me to rebuild it? An enemy now that is not faceless? Finally.
Seraphiel hadn’t even began to think of how he would ever deal with Khael, he just wanted to revel in the current moment rather than face his reality. Madarame, Derek and Pelli are throwing dice and laughing like it was an ordinary day.
Outside, in the slums of Seriol people rise and march asking for the great leader of Zod to invade them and bring them under their rule. Anything but unity!
—
Sol is seated in Khael’s home in Zod, he drinks a cup of tea prepared by 1 and leans back. He looks at his watch, “What time do you go sleep? Its getting late”
“Whenever i am ordered to.” He replies bluntly as if obvious.
Sol raises an eyebrow placing the cup down on the table. “Ah okay”. He turns looking into the adjacent rooms, it seems no one in this house was asleep despite the time, they all were working like usual.
”Do you have any idea when he will get back?” Sol says, suddenly his right hand launches to his face and 4 fingers are splayed out. “4 minutes” he mutters.
Sol lays languid, he imagines the next act in the performance, the King was of course alive but he was without a kingdom. Sol yawns thinking about what shall be the next course of events.
Khael walks through the door calmly, he takes his coat off hanging it by the door before taking a seat opposite Sol, 1 had placed a tea cup there a few seconds prior. He leans back, one arm holding the cup by the rim and another straight behind him.
“Who needs war” he takes a sip of his drink. “We have had enough of that right?” He looks to Sol.
Sol smiles. “You know destroying the Kingdom was not necessary, i mean it would’ve been more convenient to just take him else where you know, have him walk somewhere nice and open”.
Sol was testing the waters. He wanted to know how Khael would respond to his ability being nullified.
Khael takes a sip, “Oh well, happy accidents. Besides, though the land is assuredly beautiful the architecture needed to be rebuilt.” He bites a biscuit. “The people too.” He adds after swallowing. “Say Sol, do you think i might as well take whatever i want, whenever?”
”What do you mean by that”.
”I mean, look at Zod and its lesser kingdoms, a utopia i daresay, why do we need to split under dozens of rulers why not one governing being, that will be most beneficial for us all i think. The people of Seriol or at least the lessers, are begging for this, hmm?”
“Haha, that sounds lovely but I don’t think it’s that simple. There is a reason why we are all split into separate lands. The divide engrained within generations of hatred isn’t easily if ever cured”
Sol takes a sip.
”I think Seriol would pair nicely with Cairneach. The differing climates and people. Polar opposites”
”Khael.” Sol say's calmly.
”Yes Sol” he replies cheerily.
“You know i won’t let that happen right?” Sol says plainly teetering on a threat.
”Right.”