--------------------------------------
Black Knight
I sprinted up the tower stairs with the army of destiny behind me. I'd only just regrouped with the Headmaster and his Chronicle Order. As their sacred hero, their knight, nothing would have prepared me for what I'd witness.
I exited the staircase leading upstairs.
There on the surface level, was my brother standing dead silent at the sight of his own blood-covered hand. As if the kill wasn't made by himself.
Zeleos' arm was completely drenched in disgusting red, as his palm wielding the bloodstone protruded from the back of father's robed torso.
My body ceased to move a muscle. Flashes of memory came with the inaudible shock.
Father was dead.
No more shine from the power illuminating throughout his being. His eyelids were peeled open, but completely soulless.
I stared at Zeleos.
He slowly turned his head back at me, and for the first time from I what remembered, there was a glossy fear in his own eyes. A genuine fraction of a soul.
But my instincts overcame and I unsheathed my double-edged longblade.
Its dark steel immediately reached his proximity as I zipped forwards. Distracted by the moment, he had no choice but to roll to the side. Father, along with the Crown of Infinity, laid flat onto the floorings before we knew it.
Brother still held the stone with all his quiet desperation. Then the hordes of the order following me began to fire at him.
There was no time to react. The leader of prophecy appeared beside the dead king, before Zeleos could use the power of the bloodstone. A blur of the Chronicle Order's robed figure, still unseen, whom I can only glance at from the corner of my vision.
As one of the headmaster's men took the royal staff in his hands, another placed their blade into his palms.
Zeleos' darkness engulfed the air, as the grounds shook, even from this maximum height. His eyes were transforming into a red glow.
All the dozen Chronicle Order soldiers holding him down began to have their flesh steadily peel away, terrified and clawing at their cheeks, before turning into dust.
Yet before he could unleash hell upon ourselves, his right hand wielding the gem was sliced off by Headmaster Chronisius.
I witnessed in shock of the mercilessness.
It was brutal, with strands of blood from my brother's severed arm attaching themselves to the stone, desperate to cling onto its control. I remembered how unpredictable its power was. I remembered more about things.
The back of my mind screamed at itself. I should've done more to warn him. Now, he appeared lifeless like father.
Wasn't this the right outcome? I've joined in favour of destiny, so it must be. It must. But who said? Only us?
It felt right. Yet it felt wrong. But I kept telling myself to pick a correct side.
All the while, I could barely feel a presence loom up to me.
My head spun. There were only people who were right, and those were were wrong. That's one fact I knew. Still, my brain couldn't fathom what to think, so my body started to run towards Zeleos.
But, from behind, gentle and firmly placed fingers quickly wrapped around my palm.
I turned myself around at the familiar feeling.
"Aziel-?"
She wore a guarding look; her freckled face sooted with war, her muddish brown hair unkept, and her eyes fresh from watering.
I removed my dark helmet to reveal who I was. A dark-haired reptilian man of the enemy, said to fulfill destiny.
Aziel pulled me into a tight embrace, as I steadily put my arms around her too, and we knew it couldn't last long.
"Don't. . ." She choked on her words, like the veteran couldn't handle any more harm."Don't go any closer, Black Knight. Please. . ."
My sights returned to Zeleos. He laid eyes closed near my father, with inky aura of the bloodstone wrapping around where his right hand was.
Headmaster Chronisius walked towards the Crown of Infinity. The pure energy radiated against his soiled human skin as he approached its golden surface. He threw the bloodstone at the crown, which magnetically attached onto its center among the other gems.
None of our few remaining soldiers survived Zeleos' attacks.
There seemed to be almost nobody to replace them. Everyone was dying.
On the surface of Kyronia's palace tower, I, Aziel, and Headmaster Chronisius the 7th stood.
"This is your moment to fulfill destiny, Black Knight."
The grey-haired leader of fate then turned to me, with his serious expression. But his mouth was a smile. He believed in the cause; the cause I chose to be part of since the beginning.
"I cannot do it alone. Pick up the crown and place it on my head. A hero's purpose."
He spoke genuinely in his full belief. He was a hero himself, after all.
And heroes do no wrong according to destiny. Right?
I walked forwards to reach for the Crown of Infinity.
There it was; shining, glistening, ready to be cultivated. But after seeing the chaos it caused firsthand, I only touched it for one purpose.
The only way I knew to fix everything.
So I picked it up, and as Chronisius knelt down before it, I placed it on his grey-haired head. I only noticed afterwards how it burnt the scales on my palms. I felt it scorch and tinge through my deep green skin.
And I shifted back towards the others, analyzing them.
Zeleos had his eyes barely open. Where his right hand was before, a glow of the darkest red flickered around, while it attempted to reform.
"I have to go to my brother." I told Aziel, as we exchanged a dreaded and serious gaze. But we couldn't predict how the bloodstone's power would affect us. No one could. Something didn't feel right, and we both shared the uncertainty.
Except hers began to direct against the headmaster, as her widened eyes slowly focused on him.
The crown radiated to a blinding degree. The colors of the gemstones wrapped around his very being. All we could do was witness the transformation.
Chronisius started to lift off the ground. His eyeballs replaced with burning, raging wildfires of white and dark. His glow was of every colour he wielded above his head. The leader's arms spread out to pull streaks of the magic aura, from the Crown of Infinity and into himself. There was no second thought.
". . .wait."
I heard Aziel realize with a wavering, stunned voice.
"Was wearing the crown. . . part of the plan?"
My fingers shifted towards my two-edged blade again, even if I told myself we were doing the right thing.
Vague memories were beginning to return to my head.
My father, Aeleric, was killed. His name echoed through my head out of rememberance. My brother. . . I couldn't even tell if he was truly alive now. And now we're taking the crown for ourselves. Then what was after that? We would rule all the people of Midkyron, replacing one figure with the next?
Kyronia was said to be the union of the world. Did they really deserve all this?
As the prophetic leader of Niytri's order slowly rose upwards, his head slowly tilted downwards to gaze at the violent hordes, still fiercely fighting below the palace tower. Our remaining troops defended the tower's entrance
Aziel took a step forward, as I stepped in front while pushing her behind my darkly armoured back.
"Headmaster Chronisius." I spoke, through the noise of his magic charging up, uncontrollably. "I suggest we go down and help-"
From his palms, a scorching meteor of fire erupted and barrelled straight towards the battle beneath us.
He wasn't listening. For a second, I peered down further as he did.
The last of the Drownei army laid in fires and ash, screaming and bleeding. And they weren't the only ones who were affected.
Closing his eyes, the headmaster focused all his raging energy, and the earths below us rumbled fiercely.
"They have no right to live" He said, terrifyingly calm.
Once more, I looked over the balcony at the people below.
Spikes of pure soil and rock pierced from the grounds, killing hordes upon hordes of Drownei. Waves beyond the shore grew, to the size of the buildings that previously stood, and crashed upon those still surviving. Liquid flames poured out of the circling lava river, that surrounded Kyronia palace. They burnt victims caught by it alive.
In a fury, Headmaster Chronisius continued to throw flaming projectiles summoned by his hands. He prepared to take off, steadily hovering further from the ground, to kill.
Even the Chronicle Order defending our position below were too stunned to move.
Thousands left were dying, and they were all innocent civilians.
But the now dead were also Drownei. And the Drownei were evil. I was merely spared.
In the corner of my eye, Aziel watched as innocent civilians, terrified families, and loyal soldiers were murdered in an act of genocide.
Her freckled, pale face had a toughness to it now. Despite the tears beginning to form.
She quickly wiped them away, and stretched out her fingers, as the magic rings began to glow.
And Aziel started running towards the almighty headmaster.
With a look for killing.
Within a few seconds, I found myself chasing after her and gripping her arm with a hand.
The heroine froze, and stared at me as her expression softened ever so slightly. I stood silent. I knew some aspect of all this was wrong, and I didn't know which part.
I didn't know what was right anymore.
"We can stop this while his body is getting used to pure power." She explained seriously, glancing at the distracted headmaster one time, then back at me."He's not at full strength yet. I can try to-"
"Don't do this alone, Aziel."
For at least a short while, that seemed to make Aziel hesitate. She's already lost her people. But we stared at each other, and she gave a tearful smile.
"Just. . . don't interfere." She told me as the expression started to collapse, returning to a genuine seriousness. "If anything happens, I want you still here, Kal'."
Aziel intertwined her fingers around mine. Staring into my black eyes, and looking down to my mouth.
Before I could focus, she pulled in me as her lips parted. I had no time to react as I let hers collide into mine.
She pushed me back as soon as it began, and wiped away her tears with a hand again, forcing down the emotions again.
"No. We. . . we can't. . ."
The widow looked away like I was some stranger. She glanced t Zeleos', with his arm slowly replacing its severed hand with a dark-red misty mass. Then she looked at the dead Dark Lord beside him. Then at the headmaster of the destined prophecy, with the radiating crown of the world on his head.
"This is all wrong. Nothing is right anymore. . ."
After a brief glance into my eyes, Aziel didn't meet my gaze again. There was no more hope in her tone.
Only a single thing remained raging in her mind, and she spoke it shakily out loud.
"I'll just do it for them."
She turned towards Headmaster Chronisius. Whistling aura began to charge up around her and her fingers, illuminating the veteran's figure. With all her energy used, she shook weakly. In a blinding roar, a cacophony of flames bursted out from her two palms, hurtling at the headmaster in the air.
Without even looking, the Chronicle Order leader stretched out his arm and blocked it with an invisible barrier. The shield wavered in and out in appearance, as he slowly turned his head to look at Aziel, with his glowing white eyes.
"TRAITOR."
His voice boomed while the forcefield was pushing back into him, by Aziel's beam. Aziel's spells were at their maximum point, and she was paying the cost of her own emotions. Her legs gave way as the woman broke down to a kneeling position, desperately preserving stamina.
She screamed with a violent, angry shriek in response, while the headmaster showed no hint of exhaustion or discomfort. He was only levitating like a god of all beings.
Her beams inched their way closer to him, he continued to push with his barrier of air, and both stood in a constant standstill.
Aziel was winning. The rays almost reached the surface of his middle-aged face.
But it wasn't enough.
We were too late, as he started to regain control and carry more power, the more he had the crown.
The tides of the battle shifted. Headmaster Chronisius' forcefield pushed quickly to a weakened Aziel. With his other hand, a mass of rock in flames began to form, from his hands and the lower grounds. His line of vision was only on Aziel.
And I could watch and follow orders no longer. My hand unsheathed the double-edged dark longsword, the one I've been carrying beside my waist the entire quest. I quickly removed all my black and spiny armour.
Maybe there wasn't a right side.
But I could make a right way.
I rushed forwards and leapt, with my hands holding the blade towards the headmaster, above my head.
I stabbed the leader of prophecy straight through his back, out from his robed chest.
In a recoiling reaction, he blasted his fiery projectile straight to where Aziel was, and my palms shook as I savagely wedged the sword further into him.
Then I took the Crown of Infinity off his head mid-air, and we both began falling to the river of lava below.
"Pitiful. . . look at yourself. . ." He laughed through breaths as I held onto the blade lodged into him, and the crown that was burning through my scales.
He could only smile now. He achieved what he wanted; eradicating those we deemed evil. The controllers. Nearly everyone was dead.
As we plummeted further from the palace tower, I could barely hear him continue through the noise of the racing air, and he finally finished his statement.
". . . you're no knight of destiny."
I stared finely-robed leader straight in his two human eyes.
"Then tell me now." I told him. "Is this fate?"
We plunged into the depths of the lava river, underneath the drawbridges. It felt warm for me, and was slowly reaching a deathly degree of sweltering.
The headmaster's skeleton melted into masses of particles without form. The crown was still in my hands as I gave it my all to swim upwards.
I couldn't see the surface. I merely understood that we hadn't sunk that deeply yet. My arms and legs quickened their pace as I focused above me.
But then, I looked back to the Crown of Infinity I was holding.
And it was completely gone like the leader's bones were.
Shocked, my heart raced in confusion as I forced myself up and out of the blistering river.
I gripped onto the rocky terrain surrounding Kyronia's palace, while my scaled face was finally met with fresh air, along with the rest of my body while I pulled onto the grounds.
I felt like I was burning alive now, even if I wasn't. Like the embers were passing through the walls of my veins. My legs felt unstable, as I pressured my eyelids to stay open from exhaustion.
Within the ruined village were the remaining uniformed soldiers, lined with their bright orange, of the Chronicle Order. Regular civilians of different species, except for my kind, held various rusted weapons among them; Human, Dwellvens, Marines, and Flivians. Even the common person was forced to endure this war. This quest.
The remaining world of Midkyron watched, as I approached them beyond the palace, and collapsed onto the cracked pavements.