They heard a loud boom crack across the sky, as a shadow loomed over them, it was a giant star ship. The massive galleon filled their entire sky, and they could tell at first glance that the ship was in rough shape. The outer steel walls were covered in rust, its paint saturated of all its color, the sound of its backfiring engines cracked across the sky as it slowed to a stop.
“Bloody hell! This is Lykan of Cryosis, whose galleon is this?” Lykan relayed,
“This ship is here on my order, Lykan. Did you really think you were the first ones here?”
“Ezareth?! Why the hell are you piloting an Apollyon galleon?”
“Does everything need a reason? How about mutual agreement, that good enough? I have a few of the Apollyon's high kings here, so get on already!” Ezareth ended.
The four of them entered the galleon that stood miles across, and made their way through the ship's main hall, where a man stood waiting for their arrival.
“Welcome aboard, gentleman. My name is Brezon, I am the eastern king of Khaos and the captain of this galleon, walk with me.” They could plainly see that the halls of the ship were barron and rusted.
“The hell are you? Where's Ezareth?” Lykan asked,
“Hes on one of the lower floors, just relax, im here to take you to them.”
“It would help if you would start walking, captain!” Lykan replied, Brezon flipped around, hiding his face that fumed with hatred, and ushered them forward in silence.
“Who built this massive ship, chair?”
“Look at you two getting some confidence! Truth is, we don't build them. Most of the technology you see like this ship comes from the Mid Point galaxy, where they are built and transported by the Tainted who live in Mid Point.”
They made their way through the ship's halls as they descend to the lower deck, passing through the ship's center aisle, where the two halves of the ship were separated to make room for the engine in the middle, giant clouds of black smoke flew into the sky as the engine rattled against the floor beneath them. This ship is about as run down as you can get, it's one giant patch job inside and out. Ha! I'd bet my life savings that this ship hasn’t been touched by a shipwright's hands in 500 years. Lykan thought,
“Are you the only king aboard this ship, Brezon?” Orpheus asked,
“No– No! There are two others on this ship as well, once we meet up with Lord Ezareth and the rest, we can start discussing... things.” Brezon said,
“Why can't we do it here? Save some time?”
“Trust me, Lord Orpheus. This is not something you will want to miss.” Brezon said, Orpheus laughed, “Oh really? Hearing what you dumbasses have to spit out does sound like a treat!” Brezon bit his lip and smiled,
“Can you tone down being an asshole to 75% for once? Everything you say pisses me off!” Lykan argued,
“Hey chair, so what’s a Tainted? Are they evil?” Agnis asked as the two emperors argued next to him,
“The Tainted Divines are a… ‘defective’ race, unfit to set foot in the Divine lands, which is why you’ve likely never heard of them. They are a biologically inferior species in every way, with a weaker connection to spectral energy than our own, which is why they are far more reliant on advancing technology like this galleon than we are.”
Lykan heard a new set of footsteps scurrying behind him, at the same time, two hands locked against his arm. He stopped to meet a girl with long messy hair and shallow red eyes. She said nothing even when Lykan questioned her, instead, she tightened her grip as a stream ran down her face. Brezon panicked to escort her back to her quarters, he leaned in to whisper sounds that were too distant to hear, soon after, he hurried back to them with a hint of annoyance wrote on his face,
“My apologies, you see, there are a lot of refugees from neighboring planets on this ship. Please pay them no mind -bow-.” With hesitant gazes they once again followed Brezon’s lead. Moments passed and they arrived at the next crossing, Brezon leaned in and whispered to the guards that stood at the entrance,
“The lady from before, I want her silenced.” He said, putting a thumb to his throat. The guards nodded and sped past them, their iron boots clanked against the floor in sync as they rushed down the halls. The fuck is wrong with this place?! This ‘king’ smells like he took a dive in a pool of liquid malice. And the people crowding these halls, he calls them ‘refugees’, but the look in that lady's eyes wasn't grief.. It was fear. Like she was calling out for help. It's the same with everyone walking through here, not a single time has one of these passengers met our eyes… Lykan shortly dismissed the thought and kept moving, meanwhile, Agnis was counting every step he took throughout the ship's endless halls, one hundred, one thousand, and a thousand more.
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“You know, I cant get my mind off of what you told me earlier, why are the Tainted a lesser race than ourselves?”
“Are you familiar with Hellion biology, Agnis?” The chairman questioned, Agnis examined his own body in a way he had never thought of before, his skin was as white as snow, thin flakes of frost made his arms glitter under the ceiling lights, as moisture from the air froze over his cold skin.
“No sir. It has never crossed my mind.” A cold mist flowed from within the tips of his fingers, he put his hand against the steel wall, and it cracked around his fingers like a pane of glass,
“Agnis, stop fucking around and get with the program!” Lykan yelled,
“Apologies –Lord.” He paced his way to the front of the group while his mind was burning with unanswered questions,
“These tainted people, are they the same people as the mages that I keep hearing about?”
“Not at all, sir Agnis, while they are closely alike biologically, that's where the similarities end. They are similar in that they are both fragile creatures, their lives are held together by nothing but strings waiting to be snapped.” The chairman said, a Tesseract whizzed in front of him, and its corners exploded outward, projecting a hologram in front of it. Agnis peered over his shoulder, watching as the others mumbled to each other. He walked further ahead of the group, alone and with a mind full of his own thoughts, he reached out an arm, and his hand passed through the hologram as if nothing was there.
Through the projection he saw two men standing across an open field, on one end was a Hellion like himself, while on the other end, a mysterious man covered in dark red robes. The two of them took a stance, with forceful wings the Hellion vaulted forward, while the man in red robes waved his hand above his head, and the river behind him began to glow, forming orbs of water that rose above him. The Hellion stopped in his tracks as the glowing orbs of water were frozen into lances of ice. In a split second, the Hellion threw his body to the side, barely escaping the ice lance that was hurled his way like a cannon. One after another, volleys of ice lances were fired his way like rockets, as one became ten and ten became a hundred, he was quickly overwhelmed, and one of the lances punched through his arm and drove him to the ground.
As the mage sent a final volley his way, light from his body began to glow through the Hellions clothing. His arm hardened like a rock as it transformed into ice, snapping the lance that impaled his arm in two. The other man's eyes widened in shock as he studied the barbaric Revenants every move. He held his palm outward, and a white circle filled with mysterious writing formed in front of his hand, and with his left, he formed another circle and merged them together, creating a beautiful work of art, but it was then that he could feel his arms begin to shake, he could feel the tips of his fingers growing numb as the temperature around him violently dropped, but that power was not his own, it was the Hellions whose entire body now shined a brilliant blue light.
The Hellion screamed with rage, shooting a beam of freezing energy from his mouth which slammed against the white sigil that stood as a barrier in front of them. As the mans whole body became increasingly numb, he dropped his guard and the beam exploded through the barrier, and before he knew it, the beam froze his legs into solid ice, which shattered like glass, but before he could hit the ground, his cries of pain were cut short as his lungs were burst by swords of ice that drove through his chest. The man sat in horror, gazing upon the Hellions icy forearms that were sharpened like swords and painted bright red. He could feel blood flowing from the holes in his body like rivers as he slowly sunk to the ground. Ice spikes formed under the Hellion's foot, before ending the man’s final struggle for life.
The Tesseract snapped shut and orbited around him,
“What you saw was a simulation between a celestial mage and a divine warlock. Their kind can bleed, they have beating hearts and breathing lungs, they have bodies that cant handle the backlash of their own powers they fail to wield. Thats why they exist below us, we are a species without weakness.” The chairman laughed,
“Hey! Anyone else hear that!?” Solrin pointed out,
“Just sounds like people above us.” Orpheus replied,
“No– not that. Everyone stay back!” Solrin shouted, they all leapt back as the ceiling above them fell through and crashed to the ground,
“You guys alright!?” Lykan said. He hopped over to help the couple who fell through the floor to their feet, broken pipes blasted chilling air above them as the lights that lit up the ceiling began to flicker,
“This is um.. Renovations! Yes, we have been planning to patch up areas just like this for quite a while now! But while I’ve asked my people to watch their steps when roaming these halls due to safety concerns, accidents like this happen, right?” Brezon said with broken confidence. They jolted in surprise as the ceiling of the hallway began to cave in on both sides, and the terror of its passengers filled the halls.
“Oh shit.. That's not good!” Brezon yelled,
“Renovations, right??”
“Yeah, absolutely. Everyone leg it! This thing’s gonna collapse!” Brezon yelled,
“We can't! There are people here!!” Lykan said,
“There's no time, Lykan!” Orpheus said, as he and Brezon flew off.
“Not a chance, you two. Stand your ground and help!” Lykan ordered, in a last effort push, he powered up even higher.
“Shit. How can I stop this!? This is why we need mages!” Steam loomed through the halls as the air froze around Lykans body. He traced the lining of the halls as he tried to weld them in place with frozen air, but the ceiling was too heavy. The people dropped from the upper floor like tumbling rocks as the rusted support beams began to break off of the walls.
“Dammit! I can't get too cold or the people will suffer! Why is everyone just sitting here, GET MOVING!!”
“What's wrong, iceman?” A distant voice echoed, solid poles of golden light slammed in the ground as they spiraled down the halls, pushing the ceiling back into place as the light bended around them,
“Dammit Arel you’re a lifesaver!” Lykan said as he took in a breath of relief.
“I just got bored of watching you struggle. By the way, no one touch the light unless you want to lose a hand!”
“Everyone, off your asses and get out!” Lykan shouted to the passengers who stood frozen in shock. Arel twisted around, “And what the hell are you two doing? You’re even more useless than that living refrigerator.”
“I didn't ask, Angel.” Orpheus replied as he brushed past him with a disdainful frown,
“Alright then, guess you don't need to know about the mages we’ve captured and are holding below, the same mages that caused this mess.” Arel ended.
To be continued…