Kalon

  Chapter Eighty-Eight: Juta

  Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

  Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation

  Solar System: D-447

  Planet: Ora

  Location: The planet's surface

  ***

  Realm of Dreams

  ***

  My soul is adrift in the realm of dreams, the waters tumultuous as they rise and crash over me. Pushing me towards the island which has grown even larger now. I grasp the land, pulling myself up onto its banks. Rolling on my back and looking up to the stars within the dream world. The crashing of waves becomes a lullaby to me. The dead that haunt me are in the same water, their eyes upon me. They do not try to pull me to the abyss as they normally do though, they know I will be with them soon enough. I can see hope in their eyes that my death might be worthy enough to erase their pain of being carried by me. I do not see my old Clan Chief Barnak amongst them. Only shadow spirits remain here, the ones that fought on Barnak’s side are nowhere to be seen.

  As I lie on the ground, I wonder who the man with the wide-brimmed hat was, I should be more concerned, having left Luna to fend for herself, but I am weary of fighting. Besides, his eyes did not hold malice, nor did his stance. Only curiosity. Perhaps she knows him. There is a weight that feels lifted from me, thinking back on protecting Luna. The feeling of a life debt paid in full. I reminisce on the feelings of my heart for her before, it is strange though, in the peace of these lapping waves, I feel only the calm. Perhaps it was just the warrior’s blood in me, heightening irrational emotions. We are from different walks of life, there is no future there. Best to not dwell on it… yet, here I am, dwelling on it, telling myself she means nothing.

  Before I can ruminate further, thunderclouds begin to form and obstruct the sky above, red lightning arcing now. I know the demon Krotha follows soon, but the fear I once had has left me.

  “Come demon…” I say, the resolve filling me, taking its first steps as I sit up and flick a small stone from the island into the water.

  Lightning strikes the ground next to me, but I do not move. I sit still and listen to the crackling, there is beauty in its chaos.

  “I do not fear you.” I proclaim, flicking another stone.

  Lightning strikes again. From the stone where it struck, a black oozing mass begins to rise slowly before it takes Krotha’s shape. A slender body, fit and curved as though hewn with vulgar thoughts. A provocative red dress forms and weaves upon her body, hugging the curves she is endowed with, it sparkles with a Netheric glow that matches her crimson eyes. She is beautiful in appearance, but to me, she is too ugly inside to find merit in it. Her black hair is held up by a red band with a black flower that matches the patterns of black that trace along the edges of her dress. The ends of her hair still look like they were dipped in the same crimson that colors her eyes. Her laughter booms like the thunder above and shakes my soul, vibrating the realm of dreams. Her voice pierces the marrow of my existence. Yet, I am calm.

  “You do not know the meaning of fear. Not yet at least,” She says with confidence that would have rattled me before, but now, I am not so easily shaken.

  “You know that I can expel you from this place,” I sigh, tossing another pebble into the depths, “I grow tired of your games. Unless you’re going to give me wisdom about how to be rid of you for good, leave.” I give her another warning glance.

  She moves towards me now, moving to grasp my chin. I try to swat her hand away, but am held in place. My temper flares as I try to resonate the Maka as before, but she shakes her head.

  “Not this time, dearest blade,” a sinister grin filling her lips. She snaps her fingers and eight bolts of lightning strike the ground around us.

  Black oozing liquid begins to roll and contort from each area where the ground was struck. Each of the eight piles of ooze begin to rise into the shape of a demon, just like Krotha used to look like when she was swathed in darkness. The forms are too distorted to make out anything except the glowing slits of red where their eyes should be. Deep red lips that glow like the slits of their eyes begin to form in the mass around the mouth.

  “Which one of you is Amon?” I ask the beings swathed in darkness. None answer. The familiar feeling of dread begins to creep into me.

  “Teach him the meaning of pain,” Krotha says, waving a hand, making a throne rise from the stone for her to sit upon.

  The demons move forward in unison now, gliding towards me. I try to move, but I am held in place still. My heart begins to thump as my resolve feels the weight of these beings swathed in darkness. Eight sets of hands move towards my face and my shoulders, as the creatures slink down towards me like phantoms, their eerie slit eyes and mouth chilling me.

  “You are worthless to me as you are now,” Krotha explains, leaning back on her throne of stone.

  I try to move again but I can’t. I try to find the rhythm, but something is stopping me. As the hands touch me, pain incarnate flows into me, my body trembling under its wrath. Right as I feel the cracks in my sanity becoming loose, suddenly the pain stops. Leaving me panting in a heap. I can move again, my arms claw at the ground to escape the demons trail behind me slowly, all while Krotha cackles at my expense.

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  “Where is your bravado? Where is your defiance?” Krotha asks, tilting her head at me with a content smile forming as she crosses her legs, “Show me your resolve, and I will show you where it ends.”

  She howls with laughter, her dreadful black painted lips curl into a smile. Scrunching the red makeup around her eyes that sparkle like Netherium.

  “Pain shall be your teacher… and I your master.” She says, leaning forward to grin deeply before resting a hand on the chair to hold her head up lazily as though bored and amused in the same breath, “Proceed.”

  Pain courses through me again until I feel my mind about to splinter and it stops. It comes again and again, always stopping right before I shatter. My mind tries to move far away from the pain to block it, but it is unavoidable. The demons strike at my soul, not my body. Images of destruction flood my mind, battles long past becoming relived once more. I see the previous users of this accursed Edict, all of their demises playing vividly in my mind. Tears of blood run down my face as I feel each of their deaths, the unfulfilled dreams, the anguish of being trapped and tormented by the darkness inside the black box.

  “All of them were unworthy to hold even a fraction of my power,” Krotha says with bitter tone. She moves from her throne, waving the demons to depart. She kneels next to me on the ground, cradling my head in her lap, as though she is not the reason for my torments. She presses affection and warmth through the Maka in pulses, trying to manipulate how I feel. She sighs after a few moments before changing her tactics.

  “Perhaps if I show you the future, you will see the benefits of being my blade.” She says softly into my ear.

  Images cascade across my mind now, not of the past but of the potential future, snaking pathways that branch off leading to pain. I see Arrum bleeding out upon the snow, reaching towards the skies calling to the deaf ears of the Gods. The images shift and I see Nekam holding the corpses of Neeba and Nevari, shouting to the abyss. Yuri and Korra both lying dead with a blade in each hand. Haki, and Daki, the brothers fight some kind of beast with glowing eyes, wrapped in darkness, I see terror in their eyes that haunts me.

  The visions shift to the snow, just outside my old city. Thousands of dead line the blood-soaked ice, I can see their spirits rise from their bodies through the vision, they are angry, wrathful, and confused. A low hum begins to echo from their mouths, forming a single word… Juta… Justice. It shifts back to some kind of Colosseum, hordes of masters roar with approval from seats along the ring of the Colosseum. My heart burns with rage as I see my people being killed on the sands before them. Resolve begins to rise once more, each burst of pain mixing with the images, tempering the blade of my will within me.

  Krotha moves the hair from my eyes, playing as though she is being affectionate, she leans down again to speak softly, “The future is not set in stone. It is fickle like mortals and false gods. But I have learned to harness her power. The one who sleeps deep within Fate’s Prison. With it, I can show you a better future, you need only submit to me fully. Accept me as your Goddess, there is no point in fighting anymore.”

  “No,” I say, glaring at her defiantly, “There is no future where I take you as my Goddess, no path that you can forge which I will choose to walk. Kill me or leave me, I don’t care which.”

  Her face flashes with an emotion that I didn’t know her capable of. Her eyes blink at me before she throws me off her lap and returns to her throne of stone.

  “Proceed,” she seethes through gritted teeth.

  The demons are relentless. The pain increases as my breaking point becomes further away each time. Krotha’s smile grows more hollow now. The demons increase the pain again, showing me different memories of their own failings.

  The next set of futures that Krotha shows me include much of the last, with the addition of the passages of the labyrinth under the masters’ Colosseum, bringing me to white-clad halls, words written upon the walls. Fifteenth floor. I see bloody drag marks heading toward a large door. There is something hidden here. Something the demon wishes for me to see. Something that will cause me great pain.

  “Yes… I will reshape you.” She says, walking around me, with a musing expression, she waves her hand, the demons disappearing in smoke, “It takes a true master of pain to change you I suppose.”

  She begins the torture anew, the pain somehow intensifies, smaller islands in the realm of dreams ignite with a black fire. I feel parts of myself slipping, I feel a call to the Abyss. The pain pushes over the threshold, my mind beginning to crack now. My heart rages in my chest as fear finally finds me with its cruel embrace. The pain she gives me is more than physical, she also shows me images of death, those I care for being mutilated.

  I try to think of a way to be rid of her, I am still blocked from controlling the Maka somehow. The realm of dreams begins to shake as I recall the words that Amara wrote with my hand when I called her. The memory begins to form in my mind’s eye. The words trying to patch the cracks as they form.

  Ulima Dom Sekar – Forsaken by man

  The truth of those words falls away when I feel the warmth coming from my chest. A presence surrounds me now, warm and inviting. The second set of words she wrote fills my mind.

  Alakin Dom Jukora

  I feel the words give rise to meaning inside me as the presence grows stronger. The darkness pushes back fervently against the light. I hear in a whisper a voice that is soft like the sunrise upon a harsh world, it burns the darkness away, just enough for me to realize it is Luna’s voice. Her words form in my mind, anchored somewhere distant like it comes from the realm where my physical body lies.

  Call for my Goddess, Call for Leora

  Will that work? My teeth grit, having to rely on a god… yet, the pain, if I can stop it. My head turns to Krotha, my mouth pulling open, and her eyes squint at my defiance.

  “Leora,” I say.

  Krotha’s eyes grow wide as she turns her gaze upwards, her face souring. I see a light forming in the darkness of the realm of dreams above us, hope that is not mine fills me. Krotha’s smile changes into a scowl as she points a finger up at the fully forming being swathed in light.

  “You dare… False God?” she roars with malice.

  The being of light, Leora, crashes onto the island, the dream world rocks violently. Leora rushes towards me, her form still shrouded in blinding light. Placing a hand on my chest and pushing me backwards. I feel myself being expelled from the dream world, the realm of the waking calling me. I do not fight it, I want to leave this place. Everything fades to darkness.

  ***

  Realm of Reality

  ***

  My eyes open abruptly, pain wracks the flesh of my body. I feel Luna clutching me tightly, there is warmth from her body, unnatural warmth that pushes back the chill of cold in my bones. Around me I see we are in a different cave carved deep in the ice. The suns rays ripple through cracks in the snow that piles above, creating shimmers in the cave.

  “I thought I lost you,” Luna says, realizing I am awake now. She grips my face tightly, holding her eyes in mine as she cradles me.

  “You owe me answers.” I manage to say

  She clutches me tighter, “I know.”

  I look around but I do not see the man with the wide-brimmed hat… did I imagine him? My breath is heavy as I feel rebounds of energy inside me. The Cursed Edict lays across the cave, glimmering in light. Krotha and Leora are still fighting, dread rises again, wondering who will win this time.

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