No amount of hatred and pleasure can make me strong enough to stop what was happening. Needless to say, the one standing still was myself, a supposed king, looking at the imposing figure that remained in front of my father, with his cloak of skin and fur, on the inside, beige in color and, in a few places, golden. The "gaze" of his mask lingered on my father's dead body, and then on his lifeless face, which still maintained the expression of a man seeking redemption for the wronged one's forgiveness. A strange expression that didn't fit my father's personal being and made me feel that there was something more to my father's death and what seemed to be the most impossible thing in the world, surpassing even the rebirth of a being long dead.
It is common in writing for beings more inclined to knowledge to correlate concepts that cultivate metaphor, visible at this moment in the concept: Time. Time was like a river that suddenly had a part of it dammed by beavers or human action. But this metaphor expands what is considered outside the radar of the gods themselves. It pains me to know what this event was. It pains me much more than thinking of an escape plan as soon as this event ends.
The only part of my body that I could still move as I wished were my eyes. And what I watched irritated me greatly. But what can I do against someone capable of stopping imperious time?
Besides anger, fear began to take hold. Deep down, I knew that a king should know how to control his anger so as not to make very unwise decisions. There was only one thing left for me... And to use that thing, I needed to know why this son of a bitch, probably from H, killed my father, and I also needed him to stop time so I could use the Arcane Judgment.
"Sorry, kid. So many things could have been avoided if this man had never been born." The masked man's voice was calm, ethereal, ironically sweet, but firm and accentuated. Each word spoken with purpose. He spoke like someone who had lost everything, but had managed to recover a good portion. And a good portion doesn't mean the whole. Just a good portion...
He walks toward me, to the point that no matter how much I try to look up, I still see only his waist covered by the cloak.
"Certain hearts are so dirty that they beg to be turned to ashes." His words were spoken to me. *"He knows!"* I think, with more fear than anger. Even if he let me go, my life would be doomed from the moment he opened his mouth. *"Get me out of this dungeon, you son of a bitch!"* I scream internally, despair making its way in the moment an image of this man raping my sister comes to mind.
I can't defeat him! This is the truth. My father was stronger than me and still lost, so it was to be expected that I would lose to the masked man. Paper loses to scissors, scissors lose to stone. Therefore, stone is invincible, or at least the strongest? No, stone loses to paper, which loses to scissors, which is subsequently weaker than stone.
This was the paradox of power. Who wins is not important. Importance arises in the individual's actions. It arises in the means and not the ends; that is what defines power. This was something my father said countless times to my brother Zequila. Memories of happiness resurface over me, and my facade of a cold king falls slightly. From one of my eyes falls something human, something that doesn't belong to a lion. Who would have thought that lions lose to other lions.
*"I lose only if when this ends, my sister and brothers are dead, and I lie with a spear in my chest!"* I think, with my thoughts and hope destroyed. *"A lion deserves no pity!"*
"I would like to cleanse your heart, Zirinos. But I think you don't want the same, so let's make a deal from Lion to Lion." With a laugh, he adds, "Or from lion to mouse, for the 'very royal' way you're standing." And he laughs again. "But don't lose, or the consequences will be your brothers."
He looks at my brothers sitting at a table with expressions of horror, despite the time stop.
"The deal is this: If you manage to escape with your brothers to X before I catch you, I will kill Ariana and become your subject. If you don't manage, well... I'll tell you later."
He takes the beautiful watch from his cloak and plays with it in front of my eyes. Each time the black watch danced on his fingers in front of my eyes, I felt like throwing myself off a cliff. *"A relic of reality."* I think, not knowing how to act.
"There are many philosophies that seek to justify the way a being acts in the way it does. A knight has honor and fights to protect the weak; in his eyes, dying defending his kingdom is not a loss. But for a baker, death means loss. Where do you fit into all this, Zirinos?" And remembering that time was stopped, he raises the watch to the sun, and it shines in an ethereal white tone for a few seconds. The light was so strong that I felt a strong urge to tear out my eyes. After the flash, screams echo, guards and even knights enter the hall, not to defeat the masked man, but to protect me and only me. My death meant the fall of the bloodline most favored by the universe itself. If something happened to me... even this man would die.
I don't stay still. With all my strength, I scream, my lungs filling with rage and sadness. *"Live well, my father."* I embrace his decapitated head. My clothes become stained with blood; the red part is covered, and the yellow part becomes stained with what could be the fall of royalty in Z.
"Arcanum! Oh, my Arcanum. Show yourself and judge this man who killed without remorse! Oh, Arcanum, elder of judgments, of justice and injustices, show yourself and grant me the ability to reveal my desires for Justice. By the blood of Zer'Malo'Kiou! INDIVIDUAL ARCANE JUDGMENT!"
The space around me darkens, and I feel my body ache as if I had committed what I usually do to maids upon myself. After seconds of disorientation, both I and the son of a bitch who killed my father find ourselves with chains around our bodies. We were in an open space, in the Land of Judgment, in the inverted part of J. The ground beneath us was golden, made of gold.
"Oh, my boy, what kind of justice do you seek with this old one?" The Arcanum spoke in its grandmotherly voice. This was the second time I saw the Arcanum. The first, my father had brought me here to judge the Ex-King of T and give his throne to his eldest son, by the will of the people of T. And I remember that the Arcanum's two golden horns made me afraid of him.
"This bastard killed my father!!" I scream, my voice beginning, little by little, to come out hoarse, almost nonexistent.
The Arcanum looks at him with sadness.
"I see... but... why, sir?" He activates the gift of truth over the masked man.
"Equivalence, old one." The masked man laughs. "A life for a life. Surely you'll find that phrase somewhere in the laws Zickony wrote."
Equivalence. *"So my father really did kill someone,"* I think, not worrying or feeling betrayed or anything of the sort. If my father did it, it was for some reason. The masked man seemed, much as I don't want to admit it, rational. I very much doubt he would come all this way just to kill my father for no reason.
"Oh!" The Arcanum says, surprised. The golden light that surrounds the damned one shines in a strong golden-green tone. Like nature itself blooming in the hot, hostile desert. "You have reasons, sir. The rule of this world is this: Everything has a price. And much as it pains me, Zickony paid the price for an action."
"The Judgment ends here." He sighs. "But before you leave, you justified the death of the sovereign of Z, and it was Zirinos who initiated this judgment, so you can ask something of Zirinos, and he is obliged to fulfill it."
"I don't want anything, Arcanum. Later I'll ask something of him. Let it be a debt." He laughs, and the chains that held him to the ground begin to break. "Just take us out of here, old one."
"Very we..."
Before the Arcanum can finish, I scream:
"Arcanum! This man killed your master, and you do nothing to stop him?"
"Oh, if I could, little master. But you yourself, better than anyone, know the rules. And as long as you are too weak, you won't be able to control me like your father. If I were you, I would start sleeping as soon as I left here." He smiles, his golden features and his torn-out eyes trembling, revealing that he really wanted to do something but couldn't. "Fight for your people, little master, and if not for your people, fight for yourself and your brothers and sister." He snaps his fingers, and I find myself in the hall. My father's body had already been removed by the knights. From the door appear my knights, who seem to be being subdued by men in toasted-yellow armor. *"Ariana's sons of bitches!"* I think, a metallic taste hitting my mouth. I was exhausted from the amount of power I had to use for a judgment that lasted less than a minute. *"How did you manage to use Totalis Judgement, father?"* I hold his head tighter and cry as I tremble and kneel.
At least the Arcanum had the decency to send the bastard somewhere else.
I should flee. But I couldn't, and I didn't know if I even wanted to.
My brothers drag me to a small planet-ship. To flee from this place I call home. In the distance, I see ships from A taking off from this beautiful planet. Armed men come out of them. They run through the golden streets of Z. They rape. They kill. Mothers, daughters, sons, grandparents, grandfathers, and even animals.
In the background of the landscape, a little girl sees her mother being taken and destroyed in various ways before her. She can do nothing. She cries a lot.
*"If only she knew that she is the next to suffer the insane mistreatment of these men from A."* If only she knew that she would be raped and beaten to death, even though she is a child...
That was what I would do if I ever conquered another galaxy. Kill, rape, destroy. This was the best—and only—way to completely take a land.
From the moment the planet-ship leaves the atmosphere and the capital planet is taken, my galaxy will effectively belong to Ariana. And I will do nothing. It's not like I can protect my land in the state I'm in. Especially with an enemy capable of stopping time.
When I am stronger, I will reclaim what is rightfully mine. But first, I need to get rid of the damned man. I need to hide. But where? Which galaxies are truly on Z's side? It's not like I can go around asking: *"Hello, I'm Zirinos Sinéld Malor, heir to the throne of Z. Can you take me in?"* That would be asking to be killed in the worst way possible. That is, if I said it to the wrong person. And even if I said it to the right person, the shame would be too great.
What would my father say if he saw me acting so pathetically? Seeing me cry, when a king must not show emotions? When a lion must not show the gazelle that it suffers?
I will dirty my hands. I will suffer. But he will die by my hands.
This is my manifesto of hatred.
If I have to kill children to kill him, I will kill them. If I have to kill people from my own land to kill him, I will kill them. If I have to kill myself to kill him, I will commit suicide...