Heirloom amours were intended to be passed through generations on end, intended to survive thousands of years, through wars, wear & tear and most importantly the march of time. Hence it was made out of one of the rarest metal on Bhoomi zorax, one of the most reactive metal on the planet which oxidises immediately when in contact with air at room temperature. So why was it selected for heirloom armours? Cause the oxidise zorax is tougher than most metals known to man and a red few micron thick outer layer doesn’t crumble even when hit by the strongest lance of the strongest lance moving at his fastest speed. Making this the perfect metal to use for such weapons and armour. The only problem is its rarity, but the king of Bhasmachal was rich enough to use his merchant friend Marcus’s help to procure enough quantity of the metal to coat the chain of about 3 km length with metal, using the process of galvanisation, only problem being, he did not have the time to prepare it before the battle began causing them time to delay phase 2 of the plan.
The ships parted away and maintained constant tension in the chain intended to tie the beast up, the chain was then connected to the ship’s anchor pulley to increase the tension on the beast’s neck. Things were moving well, too well actually thought Julius after boarding the ship using a speed boat. Julius felt he had missed something in the plan or its execution, but for now he simply enjoyed the brief moment of peace he got in this ordeal, after a few hours of sailing they were halfway to reach their destination, which was largest underwater volcano on the west coast of the Bharat in the Tapi ocean, Mount Solaris. Being this close to the volcano was always a threat to the existence of the country, but today was the day they were in need of it the most. One of the tallest peaks in this part of the world the mountain stood at 15000 m height above the sea bed which was 30000 m below the sea level. One of the deepest points in the world, it was rumoured that the molten magma which was displaced after Naga ruler Ashwasena dropped his arrow was so much that crust in this part of the sea bed had pinched up, the magma in this point was one of the hottest in the world, with the ability of melting even the toughest metals on Bhoomi.
The only plan Julius could come up with despite knowing the power of the cursed being in advance was plunging it in volcano, he no other weapon with he could pierce the skin on the beast let alone kill it, he thought as he slowly massaging the blue emerald on his biceps, nervousness evident in his voice. Suddenly he felt the ship being move abruptly, at first he thought the weather was picking up and the rudder was not adjusted to it, but then the ship moved violently. Julius took some time to register but he realized the beast had had enough power to move the entire ship now and then he realized his mistake, he had left close to 500 fatigued soldiers to fend off the more than 100 goblins, even with him present they weren’t able to fend them off with this ratio. “Did they get annihilated?? No!! that’s not possible” he tried denying his worst thoughts, but he realized that was a likely possibility.
Back on land Julius’s intuition had given him the right answer, all the soldiers were dead and 38 goblins had survived the battle killing the fatigued soldiers. But even he forgot… that these goblins did not need to stop and they moved into the residential locations. The war chronicalizer, the one responsible for taking care of chronicalizing the war had long left the battle field when he realized that army failed to control the goblins. Chronicalizers were private individuals who sold their services for Svarna, one of highest paid positions among them was that of those who cover war. Once done these people sell their articles to the highest bidder, which were generally the king or a newspaper, making newspaper dailies one of the costliest businesses to run. As soon as he left the battle field he was accosted by Marcus’s spies who kidnapped him and he was swiftly brought to a nearby location. In private room after a little bit of “persuasion” the chronicalizer replied to the man’s questions. Marcus came to realize why Julius only wanted a small troop of powerful people to face the beast and he got a description of the beast.
“Why didn’t you say something?? You idiot!! Together we could have faced that better”
But he did realize, that Julia was young and not yet ready for take the reign of the country yet, he had to guide her should anything happen to him. He still did not understand why Julius thought this to be such a big issue, he trusted his judgement, but from the looks of things, this monster did not seem like a threat enough to mobilize the king and his personal guards.
Meanwhile the 38 goblins had gone on a rampage in the nearby villages, consuming and killing their prey, killing hundreds of normal people, though each villager was not as big a source as a soldier but the numbers were more than making up for it. The local vigils urbani, moved in response to curb the goblin rampage, but they were no match and became simple prey to them nourishing the beast. It was mayhem for the local people that were getting killed by the thousands, Oh the pain they felt from getting their mana pulled out!!! One of the worst ways to die and it was handed to people in droves.
Marcus knew the locals were no match for the goblins so he mobilized his own personal forces to eradicate the mess, but they had spread out and he did not have an exact figure, so he had to cordon off the a huge area which included a town and few villages, using an army and local urbanis to take them out one by one, it was taking time… time by which thousands on thousands were being massacred, the goblins were tireless and strong and they did not hesitate; people were like flocks of sheep dumped in front of the goblins, finally after a long duration of tussle, Marcus finally managed to eliminate all the goblins, though the perimeter of the towns using the army and investigation using vigils urbani was kept constant for the next few days. Though from the behaviour of the goblins, it did not seem like they had any self-preservation instincts.
While all of this was happening in-land, the beast was strengthening itself, its strength continued increasing from the mana he had been getting and once his connection with the last of the goblins was severed it sprang into action. It started pulling the chains towards himself and lo and behold, the ships… they were moving towards each other! Tension in the chains was maintained using an automatic mana driven mechanism which pulled when the ships neared each other so no one noticed at first, but slowly the first mate on both ships were starting to realize something was off. The ships were, without their commands moving towards each other, they then noticed the beast wriggling about and slack chain hanging below him. The beast was pulling them closer. They sounded the alarm and informed Julius about the same. Everyone had already decided to sacrifice their lives for the mission, if the ships collide the mission would fail for sure, Julius ordered and the best of marksmen with their mana arrows attacked the beast. Its position made it so it couldn’t defend but it let the marksmen strike it and continued on with its work. Julius then took up the mantle of fighting unto himself and walked over the chain. The beast saw this, it was becoming smarter with time for some reason and became alert on seeing Julius approaching it.
Using the loose chain below it, it freed itself and fell into the waters and then swam awkwardly to a nearby small island about 2.5 by 1 km in area. This was an uninhabited island created from the recent expulsion of lava a few centuries ago, it was not a major eruption simple expulsion of lava leading to formation of a small island. The vegetation on the island were due to seeds contained in bird droppings and other sources hence it was quiet varied and dense.
The beast on reaching the shores did something un-imaginable, when things started out the beast did not even look to intentionally preserve its life swatting down anything that came its way, as time went on it showed anger towards its assailants, it responded to attacks against it trying to grab weapons. But now… now it had done its first intelligent gesture, standing with its right shoulder facing Julius, it raised its right hand parallel to the ground just below the shoulder level and pointed its hand straight out and then curled four of its fingers, straightened it out and then again curled it. It was a provocative ‘come hither’ gesture pointed at Julius who was in the waters on its trail. He stared wide eyed at it.
The visions were more like cut-aways in television serials and didn’t display the entire event, so he never expected this, but the beast had intelligence and from his observations its seemed to be increasing. Seeing the bewildered expression on Julius’s face the beast smirked sending shivers down Julius’s plan, but fear was one thing, but backing down was another. He knew the consequences if he backed down and they were much worse than his life.
Julius swam deftly and approached the beast who was about 100 m from the beach. Julius was almost fully charged, donned in his red armour and short sword he didn’t waste time and ran into the beast. The beast as if expecting this side stepped, but was still hit.
A series of hits smacking the beast around and it could not even touch a hair on Julius’s body, the plan had derailed and Julius was pissed. His attacks were not affecting the beast, it was unhurt, not a scratch on it, this was upsetting him further. Was it all going to end as he dreamed or should he use ‘it’… what if ‘it’ doesn’t work? His mind was filled with doubts and questions but it was not visible on his face. It was night of full moon, the beautiful cool moonlight lit up the stage where the two participants faced each other, it looked like a one sided fight, but audiences knew human beings had their limits which they would reach in a few hours, the value was different for someone like Julius, the dearth of the beast’s power seemed endless, fighting a seemingly losing battle till now. The beast uprooted trees and boulder like they were twigs and aimed accurately at Julius but, Julius as if aware of everything simply side stepped, jumped, dodged and came out unaffected too. It was like a fight between the impenetrable and the invincible, Julius tried to keep the fight in a melee range and the beast tried to maintain distance. But Julius due to his clear difference in experience was still hitting despite the beast’s attempts.
Things were in stalemate for a long time, Julius went in again and sliced his swords right above the beast’s liver on its right, the beast bent right in contortion but, it continued with his arm to pulverise Julius. The beast seemed to be getting better at fighting with passing time, it picked up a large 2.5 m long conical rock from its narrow end and started swinging it, like a club. Over time it was getting better at swinging, though Julius was never in any real danger, the swings of the beast seemed to follow a fixed pattern, something what you would expect from a technique, but it was too clumsy to ascertain the technique, its swings were still raw and more like an amateur’s swings. But slowly it seemed to improve, Julius was given a lot of surprises today but this was just ridiculous, each horizontal slash, each vertical slash every movement of the sword was starting to look more like the royal broad sword technique. Julius stopped attacking and back away and asked.
“Who are you and who sent you here?”
Following this the beast who had been surprising him throughout the day and night finally said its first words “Hahahahahahahaha Hahahahahahahaha… what happened oh great king of Bhasmachal can’t continue the fight??”
Julius was quiet for a few seconds not responding to the question, just staring pensively at the beast as the cold sea breeze soothed his sweat soaked skin.
“What happened cat caught your tongue?”
“Shut up beast, tell me who are you?”
“Oh wise king you can’t even recognize who caused this entire massacre?? Everything happened right below your nose and you can’t even recognise who the perpetrator of all this is? Even incompetence has it limits”
Julius was silent for some time “Why do you want kill people of this country? What have they done to harm you so?”
“Haahahahaha… why shouldn’t this country be destroyed? This country is an abomination, why is it that despite allowing them to live in our paradise, the cretins never thank us, the Gods, whose mercy gives them the food they eat, the water they drink, the land they live on? How do these insects who look up to their Gods for protection don’t even bat an eye when injustice is met upon their Gods?” said the beast loudly
Julius raised an eyebrow in surprise. The left over 200 people from his platoon who were manning the ship were hearing the beast go on as well. Right now no one knew who the person was but everyone were flabbergasted on hearing the ideologies which seemed similar to the old nobility.
The beast continued “They think they can stand shoulder to shoulder with the Gods, marry our women and daughters, raid our granaries. And you… do you know that you are known as the king of plebeians all across the world? Thu” he said as he spit on the ground next to it.
It continued “These cursed worms bring disease to our homes, these insects protest for righ…”
Julius had enough of his non sense, instead of the replying to his ramble, he went in and attacked him over the liver again; knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying, the red short sword in his right hand followed through his swing. The beast crashed through a row of trees, but there was still no sign of damage on him.
Flashbacks were running through Julius’s mind where a familiar voice told him “why would you send the castle guards to protect those villagers? What happens if someone attacks us?”
The beast rose up “Hehehehehe these insects ‘train hard’ to make themselves stronger to reach higher in the ranks of our armies, they want to enjoy lives of a noble”
Julius took a running start and jumped in, like a tiger on the hunt, and once again struck the point right above the beast’s liver.
Flashback once again ran through his head in the same familiar voice “Augustus??? Are you mad, his father is a simple potter in some countryside, how can you select him for the position? We can leverage a closer relationship with one of the noble families and mobilize their personal forces to help us when we need. Even going by merit one man can never defeat a whole platoon of personal guards. Your decisions are starting to make less sense day by day”
The beast rose up again, still unhurt “Heehehehe HAHAHAHAHA, these wretched street dwellers think they can teach the Gods their duty”
Julius pounced upon him like he was going for the head, the beast ducked and tried to step out, but Julius changed his motion midway like he knew what was going to happen and once again struck him right above his liver, this time sending him tumbling on the ground.
Julius was gritting his teeth when a flashback ran across his mind in the same voice “you want conduct public exams to assign aristocratic position, listen to me, you are opening the flood gates to an insurgency. Mark my words… as an incumbent you will live to regret this day. Think of the of all the minor nobles we will be disappointing”
The beast rose up again “What happened to the king who listened to everyone’s request???” it said in sarcasm
Continuing to spew poison “Everybody equal in front of the law?? If the Gods and the men were meant to be equal, they would have born in the same family”
Julius’s was livid as he once again smacked the beast at the same location right above his liver as few other flashbacks ran through his mind in the same voice “So what if a fisherman’s daughter was raped by Cornelius, his estate is the largest drawer of taxes for us…
So what if Portina killed a farmer, she is young, they are bound to make mistakes at those age, let her pay 20000 Swarna, that is two hundred times more than what the farmer is worth….
So what if that old man Brachios defeated Gaius in a contest of Mana and spells, you do realise the Gauis is the son of the Former prime minister, his forces rival ours, if you confer Brachios the National Guardian title, they will rebel for sure”
The beast rose up again, but this time it was slow, a human like sombre expression on its face. Julius too slowed down looking right into its eye, but his expression was livid still, seeing him was like seeing a chained wild tiger trying to break free but reeled in using the bolts to the wall. The beast noticed this and spoke without a snide smile “But you crossed the line when you made that son of a whore merchant the prime minister above me and…”
Before the beast could complete its sentence, Julius’s wide eyes turned red and his eye balls shrank, he had clenched his jaws so much that his gums were bleeding, his fist closed tight shut, his nails digging into his flesh deep, his left hand was bleeding, the hair all over his body standing from goose bumps, his heart racing as if with the intention to blow up his veins with pressure, his brain a blank white sheet from rage. He had lost it, for the first time his life Julius had lost it, he had been betrayed by his friends, teacher, subordinates, cousins, nobles, peers, other kings. As a king of small weak nation, he was constantly in a tussle of power with other nations, so he kept it small… his circle of trusted people, he tolerated no sycophants, he tolerated no corruption, he tolerated no incompetence, so very few could enter his small trust circle. Thus he was seldomlet down, seldom betrayed but today… today he found that the first person to enter that circle was the one who had betrayed him…
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH” came a garish scream, like what would come from a primordial wild beast, Julius raised his sword high in preparation to cut, but for the first time in his life he had lost control of his Karmic power for he had identified the identity of the beast, but before he could bring his sword down in a cutting motion, the beast moved in, using all the strength in its legs, it covered the distance of nearly 30m in less than a second and punched its massive paws through Julius’s gut, like it was tofu. The gap in his armour, the only weakness of the king was exploited.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
It was like the waves had died down… the soldiers who could not react in time just stood there dumbstruck… the birds stopped singing… the winds stopped flowing… silence reigned the world. Everybody in vicinity except for the Julius had realized what had happened, his elevated heart rate reduced, his eyes returned to normal. Slowly the strength in his hands reduced as the sword slipped from his hands and fell to his sides and his hands which could not be held up fell down.
“Arey…” he uttered lightly as he slowly lowered his head to look at the beast’s hand which had gone through his body till its elbow.
Julius had realised his folly, he had lost control of his emotions and that had ended up costing him his life “Looks like end of the line for me” he thought to himself
A light whisper like voice escaped his mouth as he said “You too Brute” in the beast’s ears. (Author Note: Nailed it!!)
“So you finally realized huh…” Brutus said as he pulled his hand out letting the body of the king slip to the ground, in a foetal position.
Brutus then screamed at the top of his voice so that the war ships in the sea and the few chronicalizers in the water could hear him even without the use of mana enhanced hearing “BROTHER! YOU WORKED SO HARD FOR THESE PLEBIANS, YOU GAVE THEM RIGHTS, FOOD, LODGINGS, THEY HAVE ENJOYED PROSPERITY NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN THE HISTORY OF OUR NATION, YOU LIFTED THEM UP FROM THEIR TOILET BOWLS AND GAVE THEM THE OPPURTUNITY TO SIT WITH THE GODS THEMSELVES. SO LET’S TEST OUT WHAT THEY HAVE MADE OF THIS OPPURTUNITY SHALL WE!!”
Saying so he bent down to touch the ground but was shot in the hand by a soldier, though it didn’t hurt him a ‘tch’ slipped his mouth as he looked up, he saw the rain of mana and ordinary arrows approaching him. He walked through it, like one would through rain, this was easier because rain left you wet, but this torrent of arrows had no effect on him. He walked towards the ships which had come ashore as soldiers were jumping to pull the beast into a melee battle. Brutus walked as one would in a park, grabbed a soldier casually and corroded him rapidly, stabbing another through the heart and corroding him, nothing could deter him, but 200 was a big number to cover one by one. This was a limitation of his power. He thought killing a few would deter the rest, but one by one, as if moth attracted to fire, the soldiers kept on coming and getting killed by Brutus. One after the other, till the last one…
Brutus’s first reaction after killing them was annoyance at the numbers, then surprise when they didn’t stop and then shock when even the last one died running towards him. He turned to Julius and said, “Atleast the plebeian dogs are loyal, I’ll give you that brother”. After he said this, the barely alive Julius smirked. He had lost hope, for the first time in life, he couldn’t figure out what to do. Though a little differently, things were going as per his vision… He had accepted his fate but he wasn’t going to give his brother the satisfaction of his anger.
Seeing Julius’s smirked Brutus was pissed off greatly. He said to Julius “Brother, I know you love your soldiers, but there is something which you love more and I am going to take it away from you forever. I am going to see the bastards who you wanted to protect, desert you betray you, even in death you shall not have peace. I will take from your country what it prides in the most. I will turn your land to ash, nothing will grow here till I am alive, your country will slowly die till nothing is left of it and history will remember you as the foolish king who drove his country into ruin”
Julius moved his left hand up and uttered lightly “No!”. The worst part of his vision was coming true
Saying so Brutus once again squatted down and touched the ground and raised his head to the sky. Strain visible in his face, the soil changed colour, turning ash grey (ash means Bhasma in hindi) around him. With him as the center the corrosion of the soil spread 500 km, the trees… starting from their roots in the soil on the island, turned grey and turned to dust. All the soil in and around Bhasmachal was corroded and lost all its fertility. Tree, crops, algae, moss, grass, weed, planktons, microbes everything turned to dust in front the citizen’s eye who did not understand what was happening.
Brutus stood up slowly after the task, he seemed visibly tired as he limped his way back only to see the king running towards him livid with anger a red short sword in hand. It seemed he was aiming for Brutus’s liver region again, Brutus was too tired but he still moved to protect his side out of instinct, but something unexpected happened, Julius suddenly changed the direction of swing. Brutus noticed and this and backed away, his new found power had reduced his agility a lot, coupled with his fatigue and Julius’s disguised attack after training Brutus’s mind with the attack on his sides, Brutus couldn’t back away and Julius managed to take slice his eye slicing his sword across his face and dropped to the ground. He couldn’t pierce the skin on Brutus’s face, but managed to take out his left eye.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” screamed Brutus in pain, in his anger he lifted the fallen body of the king off the ground to murder him, but he noticed that his brother had passed away. Though in pain, he reeled in his immense anger. He didn’t want to dismember his brother’s body, so he threw it in the sea in the direction of a chronicalizer.
He then made his way towards the centre of the island and sat down and then fell on his back. The events of today had fatigued him greatly both mentally and physically. He then went to sleep when the first rays of the sun hit the island.
.
.
.
.
.
Unbeknownst to anyone a tiny blade of grass had survived his power and it was drenched in the pool of Julius’s blood…
