Legend of the Seven Gems Book I: Journey to Calicostan

Chapter XIX: Death Knocking at the Door

Khan remained eager for the coming battle, knowing its decisiveness. While he remained focused on the map of the coming battle to position his troops, the doors creak open warranted a vigilant reaction from the focused Khan. He was quick to regain his composure, while the great Nobunaga glanced over at the map, nodding his head.

Khan: Leige, fair?

Nobu: No.

Khan: No?

Nobunaga: there's an opening here.

Khan: I know, and this battalion are to prevent flanking.

Nobunaga, slapping Khan across the face with a cane: You question my judgement? Now, you're going to need them positioned not two back, but one.

Khan, smiling with a bloody tooth: Be it as you wish.

Nobu: Good. Now, the siege will begin when the King reveals himself and his army. We gave them a generous amount of time.

Khan: Perfect.

Nobu, turning their back towards Khan, walks out the room. Khan, rubbing his scar, positions the army in the way Nobu intended, smirking in the process. As he approached the window, he wrote something using ink and quill, approaching the window and whistling. Tying the letter to a raven-like and sized dragon, he stepped back and watched the lizard fly to deliver a message elsewhere.

His posh demeanor remained as he positioned his hands behind his back, and looked outwards at the massive army before his gaze. A hundred thousand, maybe more, wielded blue shiny equipment, and barreled weapons. There was some concern in Khan's eyes, but he was ready to demand their attack within moments.

The door opened, resulting in Khan turning around. There stood Nobunaga.

Nobu: Khan, you ready?

Khan: Yes, but we will have to-

A sudden loud bang was followed by a sudden collapse of the Khan, whose blood splattered against the walls and windows. He was met with a swift painful end, however it was not swift, rather Khan screamed in agony, as the bullet itself was not fast enough to end his life nearly as quickly as expected. A sudden firing of another shell was heard, resulting in him screaming in agony. Two massive holes, one in his stomach, the other in his chest, were laced with blue potent material, as he slowly began to become paralyzed from the chest, stomach, moving to the legs, shoulders, feet, arms, and finally, he last breath heard was before it reached his neck and moved towards his head.

Nobu stood above Khan as his corpse rots, bending down as if to say something. Instead, Nobu took a deep sigh, and stood up, waving his hand to signal his army to attack. Khan held off the invasion for as long as possible, but it seems that Nobu was tired of waiting.

Looking back at Khan's body, he bent down once more, and pulled a knife from his pocket. He then stabbed his face, carving a small gash through his skin, pulling off a layer of skin. Beneath the layer was a thick, dull fur. It may have once been lively, orange, black, maybe white, but now it was nothing but gray in tones.

He continued to pull more of the skin off the face, revealing more details of the decoy... Signaling guardsmen behind the door, they carried him down to a chamber beneath the grand underground layer into a strange covered
secretive canyon, riddled with lowlives and plagued. The guards stopped at a caravan; it seemed to be some black market. Exchanging words, the guards aimed their flintlocks at the vendor, who happily accepted the body after some negotiation.

On the outside of the caravan was a small symbol; A's creating a pentacle. A strange symbol, but one of meaning notoriously associated with a criminal organization whose value has become corrupted in morals.