Brilliant Man/Vir Clarissimus (Latin)

Chapter 27 Excursion

"Alright, skeletons," started Zed. "Now that we've come to an agreement, I advise that you" – he referred to all three men - "back away if you wish to view what I am about to do safely." Meaning the idle minecart station, Zed composed himself while the trio backed away, bracing for trouble.

Ozwald watched him throw his arms up – an allusion to the rain situation from earlier – then spread them open, calling into the sky.

~

His ears still rang. Ozwald weakly propped himself against a rock, brushed the sticky remains of onyx oil from his garments, then watched Zed. The two stood as equals.

He remembered seeing colors. White cracks began appearing on the ground, becoming black holes, seeping oil, then quakes – their sound almost ruptured his eardrums.

A spirit hugged Ozwald, holding him in a grasp which ascended Pluto and Space, stopping in a dark place. Heavenly lights from above shadowed his home by ten times and its finiteness by one thousand, and through the dark veil, he watched the planets, stars, and world get sucked up by Space's vacuum.

For a brief, luminant second, his moment paused. He was the only moving object, then was one of many.

The checker-board spirit that had brought him here split into thousands of black and white spirits. The whites shrunk into stars covering the sky while the blacks colored Space.

His mind was swallowed up.

~

Ozwald awoke from an icy floor. On each corner of the place were four unlit torches; his blinking into reality inadvertently flicked them on, brightening the room in their brilliant blaze.

Zed knelt beside his shoulder, straw-yellow teeth gleaming from the fire. Behind him - a green shadow from his perspective - was Miystro. Both men had coordinated this beforehand.

As a humanoid, Miystro bore certain genetic differences to humans. His fluorescent, biliverdin-coated skin was most distinct, but smaller features included flat, duck-like feet, little webs – formed by connective tissue and his same biliverdin pigment - between his fingers and toes, and springing ears which resembled angler fish antenna.

Ever since their surgical implantation – they were placed where human ears grew - Miystro's hardest fans have called them... the buns.

Thinking of all this, Ozwald snorted.

After bowing respectfully, Miystro came up and faced Zed with an odd look. "Why have you summoned me?" he inquired, not only for Zed but himself, like these words couldn't be exchanged in their looks.

Apparently expecting that, Miystro's question became a cry on deaf ears. Then he breathed, frowning while saying, "I've been drawn to the conclusion that we have a winner."

~

"Alright?" Miystro barked, his cool demeanor from seconds ago shattering. "Please explain to me how those words differ from our conclusion from only a trial ago?" Anger bloated his cheeks, coloring them and his eyes a piercing, topaz-yellow. His ears rebelled in their own way, rapidly swinging around above his forehead as a tribute to the bodily emotion.

"None really," Zed admitted, nodding to Ozwald. Staring at him, he murmured, "You see.. this man has successfully surmounted both our second and third attempts at foiling him.." And to his astonishment, Zed brought out a hand, extending "congratulations." Shaking each other, like business, the deal was sealed. He had won.