I always had a weird fascination with the setting sun. It always seemed to reflect the mood I was currently in and magnify my own emotion tenfold. Whenever I was happy, the setting sun seemed to colour the whole world in a jubilant hue. Whenever I was sad, dusk seemed to be the end of everything that was joyful and pure in the whole world.
Today, I couldn’t help but feel that the whole seemed to have been painted in a bloody tinge, as I looked out of the window of my room towards the setting sun. Like always, the setting sun seemed to be experiencing the same emotion as myself. A perfect encapsulation of the dread, the nervousness, and the weird excitement I felt at the prospect of the coming war. No matter my emotion and state of mind at any moment, I had always thought of the setting sun as beautiful. Today, I couldn’t wait for the sun to set and for the whole world to be wrapped in darkness. I found no joy in the setting sun for the first time in my life.
The declaration by Eirini about the possibility of Syntrivon’s forces already invading our planet had sent the Council into a tizzy. The alarm that the possibility had sent off was truly something to behold. A slew of strategies and calls for the deployment of every Untethered available had followed that before more level-headed minds had taken over.
A meeting had been announced for the next day itself, a meeting that would help formulate the strategy for the upcoming war, which everyone had grudgingly accepted was inevitable. This meeting was unique in the sense that Untethered not directly affiliated to the Council would be invited to be a part of it so that more ideas could be considered so as to effectively combat the upcoming conflict. The largest assembly of Untethered since the war against the miasma monsters. A meeting I wasn’t invited to be a part of.
There was no denying that the relationship between myself and the Council had grown to be tenuous in a very short period of time. While the differences weren’t irreconcilable, it would definitely require a lot of work from both of our sides.
The upcoming war meant that my days would get a lot busier from now on. There was already talk of the number of patrols being increased and constant surveillance of some of the major sites of the world. The upcoming would also affect the mortals in some ways and it was very important to the Council that no mortal served as collateral damage in the coming war.
Eirini had stayed back at the headquarters as he would play an important part in the upcoming meeting. There had also been some tentative promises on his part that Mars would provide reinforcements in the upcoming war. All of this meant one thing. Earth was to serve as the battlefield for the largest war in the history of the Four Rings. The Council was very agitated by the fact that the number of Untethered on Earth would inevitably take a drastic hit. This was especially disastrous because the Council had made a concerted effort to restore the number of Untethered back to the huge numbers Earth boasted before the crisis of the miasma monsters.
As the sun finally descended below the horizon, I couldn’t help but think if I could become strong enough to overcome what was to come.
Interlude
Nothing but the void. Emptiness in its absolute. That was the idea behind the Void prison. And nowhere was this more evident than the eighth level of the Void prison. The second deepest level of the Void prison.
This was boring, unlike the rest of my life. I always considered myself alone but I really hate this loneliness. I don’t know why but the mindless droning of the sheep that was most of this planet’s Untethered was charming in its own rustic way. I wanted someone to ramble something unintelligible so that I could compare myself to them. So that I could console myself that even in this decrepit place, I was higher than most of the mindless peasants roaming this earth.
Patience. That was what I required to get out of this prison. And I had plenty of it. After all, my entire plan required patience. Patience worth decades, centuries even. I could wait for my opportunity to strike once more. To show the fools of the Council that it would be foolish to forget about me!
I couldn’t help but think back to my plan and my failed execution of it. So close, yet so far. Absolute power had been in my grasp before it had been snatched away cruelly by the whims of fate.
It had been so much fun. Leading around the Council by their nose. Making them trust me so that they would spill all of their secrets, not knowing that, before long, I would be above them, beyond them as was my right. The Council had grown complacent in peace, too easy to mislead, too easy to deceive, too easy to destroy. You’d think that a group of people who had been through so much tragedy would know better than to trust anyone who comes to their doorstep. In the end, they had shown themselves for what they were. Incompetent fools with power that they had no idea how to use.
Idealistic idiots, the lot of them. Protecting the planet? Why should the dragon concern itself with the existence of the sheep? The sheep had just one purpose. To serve as fodder for the dragon. Nothing more.
And their mysterious leader? The most cowardly person on this planet. A person who was too weak to accept his own failings. Blessed with powers they didn’t deserve. A power that would have been more useful in the hands of someone like me.
Fate was cruel sometimes. Rewarding the undeserving. Like my brother. Like the Council’s cowardly leader. Like Frank. Like David. My blood boils thinking about the power they had been granted, only for them to never realise their potential due to stupid ideals, weak mentality or sheer incompetence.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of the obstacle they had to face next. Sol Syntrivon. Another fool with the delusions of grandeur! It had been a good relationship with him. A mutually exclusive one. I might not be loyal but I can acknowledge when someone proves his usefulness to me.
War. I could almost imagine the dumbstruck faces of the imbeciles on the Council. They worked so hard to maintain peace. And I have to give credit where it’s due. They achieved it. It also made them ill-prepared for the coming war, though. A group of people who couldn’t see me plotting against them under their noses didn’t have a chance in the upcoming war. They might as well surrender when Sol Syntrivon finally set foot on this planet.
The Council should have fallen before me. I had everything so meticulously planned out. I would have had everything I wished for before Sol Syntrivon ever arrived on Earth. Power and lots of it. I couldn’t but lick my lips at the thought of Frank’s power. And how close I came to obtaining it. Before the universe itself had plotted against me by introducing a wild card.
David Goliath. A man, no, a boy, who had no idea of the scale of the game he had just gotten involved in. A boy granted so much power but couldn’t be bothered to rub two brain cells together to use it effectively. But fate favoured him. Time and again he escaped situations he didn’t have a right to overcome just because the fates ordained it. It was infuriating!
I couldn’t help but let out another chuckle at the thought of what the future held for him. The challenge Sol Syntrivon posed for him personally. He was in for a shock. My only wish was to be able to witness it. Alas, it seemed that I wouldn’t be fortunate enough to.
Once more, I couldn’t help but regret the failure of my plans. If only I hadn’t gotten too greedy and went after David’s slot and power too. I should’ve been satisfied with taking away Frank’s power like I had planned. But my head had been turned by the raw potential David’s power held. And to have it in the hands of someone as inept as him.
I would have escaped the Four Rings itself, past the asteroid belt. The fools in the Council weren’t even aware of the world beyond the Four Rings, the wonders and the powerful Untethered beyond the Four Rings. Too happy to retreat into themselves and blind themselves from the entire solar system. Too happy in their meaningless existence. Too happy to be pebbles in the grand scale of the universe, only fit to be trampled upon but not worthy of any consideration. Insects in a world filled with giants.
They would learn though. I would teach them. Once I escaped this void. I would teach them the natural order of things and their position on the food chain. I would educate them on the fact that they were nothing but bugs on the bottom of the barrel, only fit to be stepped upon, serving as the stepping stones for others.
They thought that they had gotten rid of me! They had made the mistake of pushing me to the back of their minds. I preferred it that way. Because it would make my revenge even more noteworthy.
They weren’t aware of the opportunity they had provided me with. An opportunity to recruit like-minded people who occupied the levels of the Void prison above me. And the golden opportunity to free ‘it’. The monster in the lowest level of the Void prison.
I wondered if they even remembered the monster. Maybe they had pushed the existence of the monster to the back of their minds too, just like they had with me. It would make their reactions even more splendid if that were the case.
But for now, I would wait. For the right opportunity. For the right moment to exact my revenge. And then they would recognise their mistake in forgetting about me. Then they will remember me again. This time, they would commit me to their memory.
It was only right that they did. And finally, when they beg for mercy at my feet, I would grant them that mercy before I take what is rightfully mine. Because I am a benevolent God!
I am Frost!
