A King's Legacy
Chapter 39
Guided by Death
"That was a mistake. What you've just done will forever be imprinted on your image as a king." Prince Tyfin rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh as he answered his father now that they were finally alone after the eventful trial. They had argued among the judges plenty during the last of it, but Alocer still had more he wanted to say now that they were out of range from eavesdroppers. Tyfin expected as much.
"Good, I would hope a mighty ruler would have no need to execute a smaller human simply for wanting to live. This is exactly the kind of image I want. This is the kind of king I will be in your wake, father. I did not inherit your thirst for blood." King Alocer scoffed, berating his son after Aster's trial.
"Oh, we both know you inherited it. You only think you won't be pushed to make the same decisions I had. You believe yourself better, but all you are doing is showing off your weak points. You've angered many a noble today-" Tyfin cut his father off before he ever continued.
"I don't care, it was the right thing to do, and when I am king, they will accept my ruling. The nobility of Alora will come to understand." Alocer turned his back on his son as he answered with a stern, yet exasperated tone.
"They already understand all they want to... You may not believe me, my son, but you should prepare yourself for backlash. You need to start considering living up to your potential... Your ENTIRE potential..." Tyfin already knew what his father was talking about. The younger lion answered defensively.
"I will never need such a tool-" Alocer merely started speaking over his son's foolish statement.
"You will... I have let you live your life, form your own opinions, and had you educated in all manner of things. I encouraged you to seek varying and unbiased guidance and counsel from our greatest minds, and often arranged for you to have the opportunities to learn from them. I said nothing about any of it as you formed your own opinions, even about me, just as I said nothing about you rolling around the sheets with your own damned guard all these years... But you ARE going to listen to me now, my son, because I speak the truth." Prince Tyfin felt his heart sink into his stomach, staring at his father in a potent mix of embarrassment, and horror. The younger lion sputtered out in denial.
"I- I don't know what you're talk-" Alocer roared, his shitty day finally getting the better of him as he shut his cub up and continued his spill.
"Oh spare me, you two weren't even slick enough to cover your damned scents, the ONLY reason the entire guard doesn't know is because Sir Syphur has been covering for the both of you! Me and Jagón have known you and Talan have been fucking for years now, we just didn't see a problem that needed addressing. You aren't as smart as you think you are sometimes, and that naiveté is going to be your downfall!"
Alocer stared at his son, who had shrunken down as he just listened to his father and stared back wide-eyed, called out on everything. The older lion sighed, finally having a seat after blowing a bit of the steam off. He continued in a tone that reflected he was only trying to reason with his cub.
"I know you think you know how people work, but you have no idea how depraved they can really be. Lifelong friends that turn on each other for a bag of fifty gold... A father that would turn his own son over to authorities to receive a bounty, a bounty placed for stealing the very same father some food... A starving brother, agreeing to try and murder somebody merely for a chance to feed his sister... Sometimes they are backed into a corner, sometimes they are greedy and sometimes they are just broken, but there will always be those that will do the most depraved things to get what they want, things you would never even begin to imagine." Alocer sighed again, speaking in a serious tone.
"That's what happens when you consume the souls of such monsters. You truly learn to comprehend how terrible people are." Tyfin finally spoke up again, sticking firm to his view on that power.
"Do you even hear yourself? The hoops you would jump through to justify using such a cursed bloodskill... Tell me, are you sure you don't simply understand how those monsters think because that is all you are now? You became the most depraved kind of person yourself... YOU COMMITTED GENOCIDE ON AN ENTIRE RACE, AND HAVE THE NERVE TO LECTURE ME ABOUT ETHICS WHEN I SPARE THE LONE SURVIVOR?" Alocer answered just as firmly.
"It is not about the ethics, nor the morals on the matter, it is about you understanding that there are terrible people in this world, and sometimes, the only way to beat them is by becoming an even bigger monster than they are... You chose the value of a single man over the united respect of your subjects. Killing him would've been a mercy at this point, and even had it made you feel uneasy, it would still be better than ending up as a dead king!" Tyfin only stared back at his father, and spoke slowly.
"I would rather become a dead king than to ever become what you have. I will not take innocent lives, and I will not use that bloodskill, and after the explanation you gave me when I was younger, I don't see how you could ever expect me to..." Alocer repeated it all rather suddenly.
"When we consume, we take from our prey. We take their strength, their emotions, and even their very memories. We consume part of, (if not the entirety of,) their very soul. The parts we take from our prey leaves behind lingering traces, usually only smaller bits of information, just enough to give you a sense of familiarity in the strangest of times. What is really happening, is small bits of their souls are lingering in our own. We take everything from our prey, and we take it all for ourselves, for that is what a king among beasts must do. You consume, or be consumed, there is no other option. You are a LION, start acting like one." Tyfin answered stoutly, clinging firmly to his morals.
"I will find another option then." Alocer let out a low, rumbling growl in irritation as he answered his son once more, his brows furrowing as his eyes narrowed.
"Perhaps you may, and I would be quite content at being made into a liar here... but I won't be. One day, you'll finally learn to accept that not everyone is going to make it to the other side. You'll learn there are predators in this world, and there is prey. I can only hope it is something you'll learn to accept before you ever find yourself one such victim at the mercy of a true monster. One day, it will be you, or them, and perhaps then you will come to accept the decisions I made for my own people. When that day comes, my son, I only pray that it will be you who comes out the hunter, and not the game."
Such haunting words for what would end up being one of the final conversations between the father and son. Tyfin just wasn't certain why the memory was resurfacing in such a moment...
All he wanted to do was cry... He had never felt so vulnerable, exposed, helpless, or at the mercy of another in his entire life. Tyfin was finally learning that his title as a prince offered far less protection than he had ever believed it to. Quite contrarily, he was finally starting to understand his father's words back then. This thought was torn away from him as he let out another yelp of searing pain.
Tyfin heard another dull, bashing sound, and looked over towards Captain Rix with tear-stricken eyes, hoping the great bull had freed himself, and was about to help him. All that answered his plea for help was the large bull collapsing before him after yet another blow to his skull. The prince finally realized this was the end. He had gotten every soldier that followed him through that desert killed, and he was going to die here as well, as soon as the rhinoceros above him was finished taking what we wanted. The pachyderm pulled his dry finger free from the prince's entrance, and whispered down to his trapped prey one final time as he lined the rest of himself up for the hilting strike he was preparing to make.
"Remember to cry for me, pretty kit-" It was an abrupt stop, one the young prince was so very grateful for. As the lion turned his head back and stared through his vision blurred by tears, his breathe hitched in his throat immediately. His eyebrows raised slightly in non-acceptance, and his tears started falling faster than ever before. He croaked out in utter disbelief.
"Talan?" The rhino's eyes were wide, and the smallest trickle of blood had just begun dripping from the burly beast's snout. The pachyderm slowly turned his gaze over his right shoulder, and stared at the warrior that had already slain him. Talan made sure to hold that gaze as his bloodskill took full effect, his ivory fangs still firmly sank into the larger beast's flesh.
"The Hunter's Toll," the name given to the Venatus family bloodskill, a skill only bore by two beasts; Jagón Venatus and his oldest son, Talan. It was a more simple skill, but quite effective. If either panther's ivory fang ever found itself buried anywhere in an enemies flesh, their victory was secured, they could kill their opponent with a single trigger at that point. Talan had seized his opportunity, and landed on the larger beast from the rooftop above after dispatching the archer, biting the rhino on his shoulder the moment he pounced. He bit down hard on impact, and sent the mental trigger immediately, sentencing the larger beast to death for ever laying a finger on HIS prince.
The rhino only stared as the blood trickled out of him, the small red rivers flowing from the beast's nose, maw, and even ears shortly after. Talan wasn't usually one to relish a kill so much, but he wasn't ashamed to admit he had rather enjoyed this one. The panther gazed into the mercenaries' eyes as the lights dimmed entirely, recalling his father's own words fondly in that moment.
"Should you deem yourself worthy of taking another's life, at least have strong enough conviction to look them in the eyes while you do it." Talan had no shortage of conviction that day, and watched in delight as the large rhino collapsed to the side, but the young beast king and his closest guard were far from in the clear just yet. There were around a dozen of the snickering sell-swords left, and Talan was going to face down them all, or so he had planned. The mercenaries still had other contingencies up their sleeves, however.
A familiar crocodile was marched forth, and shoved to his knees by the mercenaries as the boss began to speak smugly yet again. Fraxis looked like he had seen far better days, but the reptile was still alive, if nothing else. That alone was something for the young prince. Tyfin stood, made himself decent again, and clenched his fists in both anger and shame. The king-to-be stared down his foes decidedly; these beasts were not worth sparing. Perhaps his father was right to some degree after all... The living world was better off without some people in it.
===
King Calium was so very exhausted, but his rampant thoughts just wouldn't let sleep take him. Who could blame the poor man? He had been working almost endlessly for nearly five straight months, the defenses along their furthest borders being chipped away day by day all the while. Peuforet holding out as long as they did had given Adamare's secret mission time that was more valuable than any man could measure in such ill-fated days, but even this was only ever going to be a stall tactic.
Calium had returned from another week of grueling work in the cavern only to be greeted with the harrowing news; Peuforet, and the entire forest surrounding it, had been reduced to flickering embers. The second human kingdom had fallen, and Adamare had not yet heard a word on the fate of their young prince, Flose. King Alocer would surely continue pressing on in his assault, and time would surely continue running out for Calium's own people. Sleep was becoming a true rarity for the tired king.
He had roughly three months left, and Death had been strangely quiet, but the king didn't have much choice other than to trust that the deity still had a handle on things, and do whatever he thought he could with the time that remained. The king sat in the chair of his bedroom a little longer, and finally managed to at least close his eyes for a few short hours. He awoke a little while later, helped secure the next load of inventory, and made his way into the cave just as the sun started to crack over the horizon.
This was what he would do for the rest of his days on that earth. The king would set out at sunrise, go work for nearly a week, (taking very few breaks in between jobs,) and come back to receive updates and reports. Despite how long and exhausting those days of such demanding labor seemed to the king, the three remaining months seemed to fly by far too quickly. There were only a few nights left before the attack when Death finally contacted the king once more. The god had waited for Calium to return to his room before speaking.
`Bad news.' Calium stopped where he was, working on the last few pages of information to leave behind in the book for his children. The king answered in both dread, and exasperation.
"If you tell me the deal isn't possible now..." Death responded with a sigh of annoyance.
`Always jumping to conclusions... It's like you mortals believe yourselves omnipotent. The deal is fine still... probably...but the beast king has split away a section of his army to attack from two sides, and I'm certain you'll never guess which direction the second battalions will be marching from now...' Calium lowered his head, and answered deep in thought, cursing such fate.
"So... the main forces from the south, and the secondary from the west... Can we stop the western units from advancing? We know how this ends, but you wouldn't be telling me this for no reason all of a sudden." Death answered honestly.
`If they cross the mountains of the west on the second night of the assault, as they plan to, your anthill will be uncovered the following morning. They will hold their ground, and discover the cavern and everyone inside of it before the third day of the siege is over.' Calium placed his hand over his face in exhaustion, and tried to get to the point.
"And I prevent this how? What else must I do?" Death answered plainly, ignoring the king's fatigue.
`Stall them. Use your shield, and use some of those powder weapons your kind is so famous for, it isn't like you haven't prepared enough of them. You merely have to hold them off for a single day, until the southern army breaks through your outer gates around the morning of the third day, what remains of the western battalions will retreat at that point.' Calium scoffed, as if it were such a simple thing.
"So, You're telling me to just figure it out then?" Death didn't answer, which was all the answer the king needed. The king had a question burning at the back of his throat, but a knock on his door stole away his chance to ask the deity. The king turned as the knight was already opening the door.
"This had better be important..." The king received his answer swiftly.
"Lady Arcella has returned, and she has brought the heir to Peuforet with her." Calium let out a sigh of relief at some good news at last. The king spoke in a relieved voice.
"Send her in, I'd like to discuss some things with her." The knight responded grimly.
"I'm afraid that is impossible, my king. She is unconscious, and has been severely wounded. At this time, we are not even certain if she will survive. It is a miracle that the child did, as he suffered similar burns, although his were far less severe... We've been treating them both since they arrived." Calium barely even felt the sting, still just so numb to all of it during his final week alive. He thanked his knight before dismissing him, and turned right back to his work, pushing on until the dawn when he had finally finished his grand task at long last. The king leaned his head back, closed those golden eyes burning from fatigue, and finally managed to get some decent rest for the first time in months.
Just a few nights before the attack, just as the moon began to rise over the ocean, Calium Aureus slept for nearly fifteen straight hours. It would be the last true rest the king would be getting for decades to come. He awoke with an unshakeable determination to face this fate head on for his children, for his own little sun and moon.
===
Byron Aschefell stood in the meadows on the outskirts of the Adamare mountains, gazing off towards the final battlefield ahead of them in this harrowing war. His mind was seemingly millions of miles away as a younger coyote came running up behind him, delivering his report proudly.
"Master Aschefell, we have secured our battalion's supplies, and are nearly ready to begin the march of the first wave." Byron thanked his young apprentice briefly, but still corrected the cub.
"I am not merely your mentor in this place, and you are not merely my ward. It is General Aschefell here." Syphur dropped his eyes a little as he scratched the back of his neck nervously, correcting himself.
"Right, sorry, General." Bryon sighed to himself, and turned to face the cub at last, speaking apologetically.
"Pay it no mind, I am merely a bit irritated, as we all seem to be." Syphur spoke once more, working up the nerves as he asked his question.
"General Aschefell... May I join you for this final battle?" Byron answered firmly.
"You want no part in this, young Syphur." The coyote was persistent, further pestering his master in that moment.
"But, I need experience, you've said it yourself!" Byron spoke decidedly.
"There is nothing for you to gain from that experience, aside from a heavy conscience. You'll have your chance to fight one day, hopefully against fiends rather than the living." The young coyote really wanted to press his luck some more, but decided against it, feeling rather defeated in that moment. Byron spoke reassuringly to his young subordinate as he turned his back towards the cub once again.
"Had I not thought you were capable, I wouldn't have brought you along at all. I likely would've tried to find some task to keep you occupied, as many of the other generals have with their more adolescent squires. I could've sent you west, let you go compete for glory, gifts, or gold in the rodent kingdom's test of strength, just as the prospective young Rixator calf is, but I brought you along because there will be much for you to learn here... simply not during the battle."
"So I am merely here to observe?" Syphur didn't sound enthusiastic as he continued, "and not even observing the fight? Then what am I doing here? You could've just brought Silbern with you if you merely needed an errand boy, he isn't that much younger than me." Byron cast a stony glance back at his pupil, and Syphur realized the wolf was in no mood to argue. The coyote sighed heavily, turning to leave. The great general stopped him with a firm statement, still smoothing out the rough edges on his little squire.
"You were not dismissed." Syphur stopped, and turned back to his mentor, still feeling his opportunity in that place was being squandered. The older wolf spoke clearly for the cub.
"You are here to learn, young Syphur. Stay with the medic teams, and hang back from any of the actual clash. Walk the human streets with those tending to our wounded allies, step into the aftermath of the charge led by our king, General Venatus, and I, and then come tell me if you feel your experience here was wasted. Tell me then, if you still had wished to be there. Tell me THEN, what you have learned from your observations today... Now you are dismissed." The great general barked out the last of his command and paced off without another word, leaving his squire feeling a little stunned by such an order.
Byron was feeling anything but eager to perform his duties. Their formations would most likely cross over those mountains a little after nightfall, using their superior eyesight in darkness to hopefully gain an edge that they would never truly need. It was a short while later that the wolven general found the company of the panther one. The teacher greeted another of his students warmly.
"If nothing else, perhaps we may at least look forward to a little rest with our families after all of this, Jagón." The panther turned to the wolf, and bowed lightly, paying his respects to the beast that had trained him even then, even after rising up to surpass him in rank as the king's hand.
"Perhaps a little, but if my newest cub on the way ends up half as loud as Cortist was, it isn't very likely I'll be getting much rest at all." Byron chuckled, thinking fondly of his own youngest son in that moment. He answered warmly as the subject of their offspring came up.
"Oh, you should hear my Stahl, never have I had a pup growl so much at such a young age. If you try and take whatever he is teething on, you'll just end up with a bloodied finger or two... Amboss asked if we could trade him for a work horse just the other day, after Stahl bit him, so I told him to go ask his mother." Jagón forced a smile briefly, the older wolf's efforts to lighten the mood appreciated as usual by the knight. The panther played into the banter.
"And? What did Lady Aeris have to say about that?" Byron flashed a fanged smile the feline's way as he answered truthfully.
"She told him there was simply no way that was going to happen... An Aschefell cub had to at least be worth an ox." A genuine smile crept across the panther's muzzle for the first time in weeks, and the two general's simply laughed in the face of their imposing task for a moment, both working up the steel to do what was commanded, despite how tired they were by that point. A moment later, Byron spoke once again in that more sincere voice of his.
"Any word yet on your cub?" Jagón answered flatly.
"No... Felicity is still having problems, but I'm trying to remain hopeful. No easy task, considering..." Byron nodded silently, understanding what Jagón was referencing.
"Well, for what it's worth, you're masking your worry well here." Jagón went silent for a moment, gazed up at the evening sun, and answered quietly.
"I had a good teacher." Neither of the beasts felt like smiling for much longer after that. A roar of thunder sounded over the fields a moment later, signaling the charge onwards. The generals turned to each other, nodded one final time to wish one another luck, and broke off, both moving to take their places in their respective battalions. The beasts began their final march on man; a wolf, a panther, a lion, a winged dragon, and a hidden goddess leading their main forces to the base of the southern mountains.
Off to the west, marching from Lady Aschefell's own hometown, a bull and a wingless dragon were moving their own troops, timing it to arrive a little over a day after the initial clash had been predicted to begin. The beasts were hoping the humans would send the entirety of their forces to meet the southern army, leaving their defenses wide open to a pincer tactic from the west behind the guise of the very mountains the final, furless king cowered behind.
They never had any inkling it would only take that same, proposed coward, and a few barrels of black powder to bring the entirety of the would-be backup forces to their knees.
===
The beast king's main forces had severely underestimated how prepared Adamare was by that point, because fighting their way up that southern mountain certainly drug out far longer than they had expected it to. It had been almost thirty hours before they managed to claw their way up the slopes, hindered every step of the way by a slew of well-hidden hunting traps.
Everything from camouflaged pitfalls to simple snares barred their passage. Blazing barrels of whiskey and oil were rolled down the mountain in a constant barrage, their contents leaking out trails of fuel for the fire before they finally exploded on impact, engulfing beastmen and landscape alike with a sticky, stubborn fire that wasn't easily extinguished. The humans had no reservations about destroying the road into a kingdom that was already doomed.
The panther, the wolf, and the rest of the king's vanguard had lost around twenty percent of their forces merely making it up the mountain to where the true battlefield awaited. Jagón knew they needed to hurry, because Brutus Rixator's charge should be climbing over their own mountains fairly soon, but as the general finally stood upon the same overhang Aster would one day humbly gaze out over, he finally understood how little credit they ever gave the final human king. The golden waves of the heartbeat were visible from even that distance in the darkness of the second night. Calium had intercepted the western army.
As lady Alice stood watching that golden pulse from her place on the southern peaks, she had a wave of personal resentment wash over her, dredging up a bitter aftertaste that only made the goddess long for her revenge against man even more for their great betrayal. It was the lingering taste of centuries of dust, denied even a single drop of water all the while. It was something she could always seem to recall, just as clearly as she could still feel those chains binding her in place whenever she tried to rest... The same way she was still so very afraid of darkness, of even closing her eyes, lest she wake up to find her vision stolen once more.
Ten years of freedom for such a long sentence had barely even brought her out of her disbelief, but the anger of it all was finally consuming the goddess. She had already accepted such feelings when she burned down Peuforet. The goddess of the sun stood in the middle of that smaller forest nation, she heard the pleading cries of humans begging for mercy, begging her to save them. It was such a familiar song to her, but the humans could cry all the treacherous tears they wanted to this time, her flames would not be so easily doused. She would dry away all of their tears with only her answer of consuming fire.
It soon wouldn't matter if the shield fell with man anymore, she could feel it, the piece of her heart coming back... She knew who the new sword bearer was before anyone else, she remembered the faintest sensation she had overtake her when she first felt that piece of her heart reviving. Alice had stopped mid-step that day, bracing at her chest, smiling at the warmth and realization. Her heart could be reborn by beasts, the human king and his cub could fall, and she held no reservations about fulfilling her desires disguised under King Alocer's own orders.
In truth, Calium wasn't sure he could even blame her for such valid resentment, but he would still meet her the same as any enemy if needed.
===
It was time. Calium was doing one final run-through the evening the beastmen were to first begin their march up the mountains. The king was ensuring everything and everyone was in place before the low tides vanished the following morning. This would be the final day they could move anyone in, or out of their stronghold. They would be under the observant eyes of the beastman army the next time the cave appeared, and they could not risk being spotted trying to access it any further. This was it, the time Calium had so dreaded... It was time to say goodbye.
He knelt before his daughter somberly in her bedroom, laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder as he stared into her eyes warmly. Lunai was trying so hard to hold in her tears, and she was failing so beautifully in her father's opinion. Calium was so proud of how brave she was being, knowing this couldn't be so easy on a mere eight year-old. The king hid all of his own pain so expertly as he started.
"You're going to be such a great big sister to so many little brothers and sisters, you know that, right?" Lunai just clenched her eyes shut, sniffling in her best effort to keep herself together. She nodded slowly, knowing what this moment between them truly was. Calium continued endearingly.
"Don't worry, I promised you I'd never leave you without guidance, didn't I?" Lunai opened her eyes, staring somberly at her father, trying her best to be a very strong princess. Calium reached into a larger leather satchel he had been carrying, and pulled out his finished and final gift for his daughter. Lunai just cocked her head a little, giving her father time to explain.
"This book is a bit different than the others I've stocked for you, it's one I've written myself. All the information you need is already secured inside of your temporary new home, but this book helps outline how to go about it all while giving you references for where to check for various information. I tried to make it as simple as I could, to keep it easy, but there is nothing really easy about it in the end. It may be hard sometimes, but remember, you don't always have to do things based on this book. Things may change, so be open to changing with them." Lunai croaked out a response at last.
"So, I only get one last story from you? Is that supposed to feel like enough? Why can't you just come with me, father?" Calium smiled, hating that he even had to answer such a thing.
"I never expected it to feel like enough. Even as I was writing it, it never felt like I could say enough... All stories have their ends eventually, and my story must come to an end here, but there is a bit of comfort in knowing you can always revisit this one. This book is meant to grow with you. You will come to understand more of it as you mature, and you'll find new meaning with words that never resonated so clearly before. It may be my final story for you, my daughter, but it is only the prelude to your own." Lunai finally managed to hold back her tears for a moment, and gently reached out to accept the book. She broke into full on sobs once more as Calium took his daughter into his arms for the last time. The king whispered softly to her.
"Hey, who knows what can happen? Maybe I'll find a way to make it back to you after all..." He wouldn't lie to her here, but he just didn't have it in himself to tell her what true fate was in store for him. Lunai responded quietly, more trying to convince herself in that moment.
"I'll be strong. I won't cry anymore." Calium squeezed her a bit tighter, held her head so dearly to his chest, and cooed down one last bit of wisdom to his little princess.
"Oh, my moonlight, it is only the bravest and strongest that ever do cry in times such as these, yet still manage to find a way to shine." Lunai finally looked back up into her father's brilliant, golden eyes, and saw the king had been shedding his own tears for some time at that point. They held each other dearly, they cried together for a long while, and Calium finally tucked her in for the last time. The king spoke tenderly to her in that sacred moment.
"Goodnight, my moonlight." Lunai whispered softly in response.
"Goodbye, till sunrise." Calium didn't take his leave until after his daughter had managed to fall soundly to sleep. As he closed the door, he spoke firmly to the guard stationed there.
"She leaves in the morning with the rest of them. You make certain of it." The guard reassured the king he would handle it. The king had little reason to ever believe otherwise.
Calium spent the majority of his remaining hours preparing to hold the western line, already well warned that there was another challenge on its way all the while. The king stepped into his courtyard alone just a short while before he would be needed elsewhere. Death spoke swiftly when the challenger had arrived.
`On your left...' Calium never moved an inch, effortlessly bringing up a golden shield on his left side, stopping the assassin's blade just as he went to strike. The startled fox couldn't be blamed for his astonishment at the seemingly impossible interception, but Rayos Sicario was far too seasoned of a warrior to be completely caught in the king's obvious counterattack.
Calium swung his shielded fist directly towards the mostly silver fox's head, but the assassin flashed out of sight in an instant. The human king only stood his ground silently in anticipation of another assault from the shadows. He was hoping it would be the tiger, if he was being honest, that bloodskill was far easier to deal with than the Sicario one, for him at least. Death gave another warning.
`Candori is here as well, but he's being cautious now. You get to face the master and the apprentice here.' Calium cursed his luck as the god spoke again.
`Cover both of your sides... Three... Two...' Calium held both arms up, timing it perfectly. Being aligned with a deity able to foresee one's own death had its perks, after all.
The tiger and the fox were intercepted immediately upon emerging, both enraged by the impossible. Nobody could so flawlessly and effortlessly disrupt the assault of the two greatest assassins in Alora, after all. The human king dropped his shields, raised one above each beast, and slammed his arms down, hammering a ringing blow atop the skull of both intruders as he knelt into the strike. Reiner Candori phased through the earth in retreat, Rayos the fox had a more unfortunate injury as his jaw was clamped shut by the blow.
The rune on his tongue had been split by his own fang, rendering his bloodskill's shortcut useless for a while. The fox spoke his trigger verbally instead, retreating back a ways by the action.
"Mark." The experienced, older fox stared down the younger human king warily, speaking to him from his new position as he rubbed at his throbbing head.
"You're good, even for a human, I'll give you that, but you should just give up already, make this easier for all of us." As the fox ended his taunt, Death spoke hastily to the king.
`It's a ruse, he's coming low, from behind you.' The human king intercepted the tiger once again, turning around and stomping on the earth, a shielded boot colliding with the tiger's skull with a resounding impact just as he surfaced. As the feline phased back into the earth in explicit pain and humiliation once more, the fox leapt at his chance, rushing in for the kill as he shouted his trigger one final time. Calium turned, and drew his sword at last per Death's instruction, spinning just as the fox called out.
"Mark!" The silver fox's eyes went wide as he reappeared, the king's blade only drove deeper into his gut, piercing him just as the beast had taken his new position. The fox stared into the human's eyes, and asked his dying question.
"How... did you know?" Calium twisted his sword sharply, forcing a grunt from the vulpine as more of his blood was spilled around the king's hilted steel. Calium answered with a light scoff.
"Because I bargained away my soul so you hunters would finally know what it was like for your prey all this time. Tell me, beast, do I make a convincing monster?" The fox was already dead by that point, but the human king turned to the tiger reemerging from the ground as he asked him the question in his stead. Rayos Sicario fell lifeless to the earth, and Reiner Candori took a step back in fear of the one that had slain his mentor. Calium Aureus could only smile as the "great," tiger retreated like the true coward he was. Reiner Candori would not handle that loss very well.
Calium sharply swiped his sword off to the side, clearing off the bulk of the mess left behind before sheathing it. He was about to chase the tiger down until Death spoke tauntingly.
`Let him go, you don't have the time... still, that was quite a performance, extra points for the dramatic speech, was that ALL on the spot?' Calium answered with a laugh.
"Not at all... It's from Lunai's storybook, part of the big villain reveal. Figured I'd borrow some from it, get used to answering like a demon should. Seems like it worked." Death chuckled along, finding that perhaps the most humorous thing spoken that day. The deity gave his advice after.
Well, hope you're rested some, because you're needed to the west now. What you've prepared should be enough, I'll let you know when their retreat is certain.' The god paused for a moment before he continued. Some things are varying a little, and you may be alarmed by them, but all should be well. You may even gain a few allies for your children by the end.' Calium answered plainly, already forming shield after shield beneath his boots as he began climbing into the sky on an ever-forming staircase.
"Well, that isn't entirely bad news then, my allies may have shit all over us in the end, but maybe the next generation will get it right." Death scoffed at the optimism.
`Trust me, mortals almost never get it right...' Calium continued on, ascending until he stood high over the peak of the western mountains, gazing down at the secondary beast forces the size of mere insects from such a distance. As the human king took his position, and as the discovered beastmen scrambled to react below, Calium spoke once more to his dark ally.
"We usually don't get it right, this is true, but there is a chance they may. For the sake of your children and my own, lets have a little faith in that chance, shall we?" Death snickered at such a proclamation.
`You'd even lecture a deity about faith... You've got guts, if nothing else. Maybe your kind is just foolish enough to stumble across some way to turn this all around, after all.' Calium didn't answer, and instead took his stance, standing atop of a single shield, suspended well over the peak below. He raised a second shield in front of himself, reared back a third shield on his right fist, and slammed it forward, sending down the first incapacitating wave of the heartbeat's light to trap the beast army firmly in place before they ever made it even halfway up that mountain.
The king held his assault steadily after, pacing himself carefully, always ensuring he kept any from moving from their position by his timing. By the time the fifth wave had landed, the first of the catapulted powder barrels came flying through the sky behind Calium, passing to the right of the king before it fell upon the pinned forces. The first of many large explosions blew a hole in the center of the helpless beasts below. Calium only held his rhythm steady, even as the next barrel came passing by to collide into the mountain, setting off a smaller rockslide to bury another portion of the beasts. He had little trouble holding that line, having no remorse for returning a bit of that one-sided slaughter to the beast army. The great bovine, General Brutus Rixator, and the aspiring draconic warrior, Cerula Cascus, would both shoulder their failure that night for many years to come as their soldiers were massacred on their knees.
===
Jagón was feeling rather annoyed by the third afternoon of the siege. They had battled their way down the mountain and through the main gate almost too easily. They had nearly taken the entirety of the larger streets with ease. It was like the humans were letting them advance as they prioritized against the western forces instead, the remains of those battalions had finally been given reprieve from the human king's assault, and had taken the opportunity to retreat. Jagón had an uneasy feeling that the Adamites seemed to know far too much about their tactics here. Jagón considered the possibility of a leak of information somewhere in the chain of command, but the sound of another bone snapping between powerful jaws directed away his attention once more. Jagón glared towards the source, and spoke in disgust at the sight.
"Must you do that here?" The larger, winged dragon responsible for the sickening sound only turned to the panther, and grinned in delight before he tore another meaty muscle from the bones of his latest victim, scarfing it down after barely even chewing. Vimis Raxos, the imposingly powerful black dragon, spoke after gulping down the fleshy mouthful, his maw a glistening crimson from both the naturally red scales along his throat, and from the blood of his little snack rolling over his jaw in scarlet rivers. He answered in a carefree tone.
"They've been squirming around in resistance for two damned days at this point. It shouldn't have taken this long, and I'm hungry. Besides you shouldn't talk, considering how much blood has been running down your own maw." Jagón held his disgusted look firmly as the dragon dropped the remaining half of the human carcass beside himself. The right hand of the king spoke firmly to the lower ranked general, reserving no amount of his disdain.
"Using my bloodskill to land a quick kill is far different than what you're doing. They could speak, they had families, you can show some degree of respect." Vimis laughed genuinely as he wiped away some of the mess on his maw with his arm. The low chuckle was a sound that haunted the panther almost as much as the bones splintering beneath those pointed teeth had.
"Why would I EVER need to respect mere livestock? They are simply fodder for me, the same as any other creature I am superior to. We both came here to exterminate these furless, no-scale swine, and it's the last time we will ever have the chance to savor such a delicacy, so why waste good meat? Hunting purely for sport is frowned upon..." Jagón clenched his jaw angrily, he was about to shut the enraging beast up himself before Lady Alice stepped in.
"Jagón, a heavy storm is approaching. We can use this as cover to infiltrate deeper, and to break through the wall surrounding the palace. Victory will be nearly secured if we can, and perhaps we can leave all of this behind us a little more swiftly. Care to join me for some planning with the king? We are holding our current line easily, and it wouldn't hurt to let our medics catch back up a little." The panther turned towards the dragon once more, not really wanting to let this all go so easily, but turned and left with Alice all the same. Vimis Raxos watched the pair go with a malevolent smile still plastered over his blood-soaked maw.
===
Lunai awoke when the first barrel exploded, cowering in fear at the startling awakening. It was still a few hours before low tide, so her guard hadn't come for her yet. As the second barrel collided with the landscape, a low rumble could be felt through the castle. The young princess moved swiftly across her room, going to the larger portrait on her wall. She opened the hidden door effortlessly, and climbed inside, shutting the passageway closed when she was securely hidden away in her safe spot. There were very few that ever knew about those hidden access points scattered about the castle, but the princess hiding from the noise in one turned out to work exceptionally well in her favor, just as a certain deity aiding the humans had foreseen. Lunai grazed by certain death for the first time a few minutes later.
She heard a shout from the guard outside, and then she heard his dying cry as he collapsed to the floor. Reiner Candori and Rayos Sicario had been tasked with two objectives: To kill the shield bearer, and to take out as much of the castle guard before the main forces arrived as they could. The tiger had failed his first task miserably, and it had cost his mentor his life, but Reiner wasn't accepting two such failures, more so considering how angry and insecure he was feeling after losing to a mere human. His rampage through those halls left few survivors in his wake.
As the tiger passed into Lunai's room, he took a single glance around, saw no humans, and left without ever noticing the girl holding her breath just on the other side of that painting. The general made a large pass through the castle, and killed over half of the remaining staff before retreating when Calium returned.
The king realized what had happened when he finally returned to the castle after fending off the western forces. Calium cursed Death for leaving him out of the loop, and swore vengeance against the god the entire time he ran to his daughter's room. Death did not comment until after the princess had emerged, after she heard her father's voice calling out to her.
`I told you, some things were varying a little, but nothing ultimately changed. The rest of the children heading for the cavern made it safely, one of your knights acted swiftly to draw the tiger away while another led them away just in time to catch the tides. Lunai is the only one that wasn't reachable in her position in time.'
`She will still be fine, she apparently just needs to be here to see some other part of these events, she has another role to still fulfill here. The balance of fate is fighting me far too much for that to not be the case.' Calium answered mentally, merely embracing his daughter as he comforted her in that moment.
"You could've told me." Death disagreed.
`No, you would've only been distracted. I made it clear, I'm in charge of the finer details here, I only tell you what you need to know, and I ensure almost everything works out. She will be fine, just instruct her to wait in her hiding place for a little longer when it all starts tomorrow. She will find her way safely to the others after.' Calium cursed once more as the sound of thunder echoed across the third night. The dawn of Adamare's final day would soon be upon them, and the beast's would blow a hole through the outer castle gates before it's final dusk. The storm only grew larger as the battle dredged on.
===
Calium gazed down softly at his son as dusk fell around them on that final day. Of all the things the king had bargained for, the young shield bearer making it out with his life was the hardest to arrange. The goddesses of the sun and the moon were both aiming for his downfall, after all. They were both backing the sword as a replacement, and were far too aware of Solis's importance to ever let the boy disappear beneath the cover of the mountain. The beasts already aware of the young human heir to the shield aside, Death had quite a time figuring out a solution to such a puzzle, but he had found a perfectly balanced resolution that fate would accept. Death had found exactly what Calium needed to trade his very life for. For his son to survive, the king had no reservations.
Still, as the human king held his only son for the last time inside of his own throne room, he couldn't help but feel guilty it ever came down to this. Lunai was old enough that she would remember some of what life was like, Solis would remember nothing of Calium, of Adamare, nor of even his own people. Solis would be raised in a world of strangers, but it was better than the boy never growing up at all. Death somberly gave the king the warning.
`You should move him to location soon, my daughter will be caving in the front door along with a corner of your castle any moment now, and she will be taking down the door into this room only a few minutes after.'
Calium sighed, staring into his son's eyes warmly. Solis was getting quite sleepy by that point, timing that seemed most fortuitous considering what was to transpire shortly. The king bundled his son a little more tightly in his blanket, cradled him in his arm, and held his gaze warmly as he took the first descending step into the smaller room hidden behind his own throne. Just as the king placed his son down on the bed, a very loud crash echoed through the halls as the very foundation rumbled from the vastly powerful magical impact. Solis began to stir and fuss at the sudden frightening sound, and was just about to start crying again before his father intervened swiftly.
Calium laid beside his son on the bed, curled up next to the infant, and gently pressed his finger into his son's tiny hand, shushing him softly. Solis clung tightly around his father's digit as the child stared in innocence at the beautiful, golden eyes that still shone in even such dim lighting. Calium stared back into his son's own eyes, that softer brown base with only the tiniest flecks of gold barely visible in the infant's gaze at that age. The king inhaled deeply as he felt his heart lurch one final time at the realization; this would be the last time in this life that he would get with his son.
Aster faded off to sleep, the comfort of his father's presence outweighing whatever that scary noise earlier was. The boy released the king's finger as he faded off, as if he were giving Calium permission to go do what he needed to do. Calium never realized that letting go of someone's hand could ever be so hard. The king just wasn't ready... Solis had lost his mother, and he was too young to be without his father, but this was the only way he could ever have a chance at all now. Calium didn't want to let go, but Death had assured him Solis would be loved, so the king embraced what legacy he could secure for his son, and gave the boy a final, soft kiss on the brow as he said his goodbye.
"Live, my Solis... Survive their world, and use what you learn to rebuild your own... Your father will be watching you every step of the way, so don't you ever feel lonely... Don't you ever feel unloved, my sunlight, for there will always be those that care for you so greatly. The world will always need such light, no matter how great the shadow cast behind it may be."
The king stood on hesitant knees, on reluctant feet that didn't want to take a single step away from his son. Every instinct as a parent was telling him he needed to stay by his child, and defend him with his life, but the king knew that would never work. Death's idea made sense to him. The old god never lied to the king before, and the human was rather low on allies at that point. All he could do was trust what came after his final duty in this world. The king ascended the steps silently, slid his throne back to conceal the hidden room, and took a seat in the very throne blocking passage to his son. Calium only waited with bated breath.
The sound of the struggle beyond the secured throne room fell lower and lower as the time passed by. What was a noisy brawl of clashing steel at first died down to muffled groans in mere minutes. As it all grew eerily quiet in one final moment of faux peace, Calium couldn't help but speak the statement stoically.
"So, it is true." Death answered with a hint of intrigue.
`What is?' Calium elaborated with a whisper.
"It all goes silent just before you strike..."
The lighting flashed across the sky, the thunder barreled across the mountains, and the left door was almost entirely blown off the hinges with one final spell, courtesy of the king's cannon herself. Calium held his position on his throne firmly, already well aware he would be facing the beast king alone here. All Calium had to do was stall until Death gave the signal. The beast king stepped through the doorway as he shouted out his final order behind him.
"Search the grounds, kill any remaining human on sight."
Calium and Alocer gazed at each other decidedly, finally face to face as the clash of gods, beasts, and man came barreling towards its conclusion at long last. Calium stood to meet his guest with a genuine smile. The last few months had been harrowing, but finally seeing the face of the monster mostly responsible for such loss brought a strange sense of joy to the human king. Calium was going to enjoy himself in his last battle, he always did like punching bullies...
===
It was hard not to linger in one spot too long. I hope the scenes didn't seem too cramped because of it. Really hope you liked the reveal of Straga's father, been hoping I could make that scene as uncomfortable as possible with that dragon's reveal for a long time now. I'm sure you see where our little unhinged dragon from back in the beginning gets it from now. Super fun villains to write, and they have some fun parts coming book 2/3.
The fox Calium killed was Rust's biological grandfather, not his bio dad. Big book 2 Aschefell arc drama.
Calium can use the shield in ways Aster has not yet mastered, including holding more than 2 at a time, and holding them without his hands. sorry if that was confusing. Didn't even realize it may not be obvious what was happening there. Calium had the guidance to his power, Aster did not. I like slow growths though, I like my characters earning their "level ups," more than just giving them broken abilities that can't be beaten from the start. Calium gives our young human king some pointers tho! (And naturally, Aster gets more of that when he gets his hands on that book left by his father.)
Calium and Alocer should be fun. The largest remaining bomb drops next chapter, and there should only be one more major surprise after. Things start wrapping up after this. I hope this has given some insight to how some things played out after, and how some beasts were shaped going forward. (Reiner is terrified of that shield, which is why Aster was a priority on Richta's list, for example. [Daddy Aureus put the smackdown on that ass!] Also, stuff like the running tension between the venatus/raxos houses, etc.) Much of what you saw referenced was for future chapters as well, like syphur seeing the aftermath here, and using that to guide the prince in the future, and a younger Captain Rix competing in the rodent kingdom for a certain prize back then. cough Mollis cough But some of it we don't see become relevant again until book 3, so don't let me hype it up too much just yet.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy what comes next. Always happy to hear your thoughts.
-Pup Bayou