Kingdoms Fall

Chapter 13: Rage, Fire and Ice

Zokoso Aragami POV

The creatures, these chareebs, I'm pretty sure most of us thought they were myths, just like how me and my brother thought the God of Death was a myth, Oradashi... Instead of trying to find a chareeb that liked me like Loiko was saying, "You have to choose them, but they must choose you as well," he told us, I walked straight to a big wall, and all that hung on the wall were swords, katanas, samurai-styled swords, long and short swords, as well as a wooden sword for practice. There wasn't anything special about the wooden sword, or the others, it seemed, but there must've been something pulling me towards them; when I really focused on looking at the blades of the swords, it was like they emitted or had a slight aura of some sort that was clear like a heat wave instead of it having a distinct color. That was when Loiko came to my side and silently he said, "I see you found the ancient relics." "Is that what they are?" I ask, "Yes," he answers. "Will I ever get to use them, like soon?" I ask, "If you can master the ancient lotus fighting style, you may be able to get an upgraded katana, yes," he says. Then I feel Loiko's hand only very slightly on my back, but it left swiftly only staying for a fraction of a second. That was one of Loiko's abilities. To be the fastest man alive on earth was still a bit of an understatement when it came to this man and how fast he was, or really how fast he was currently. As far as I knew, the more you used your abilities, the stronger they got. A few moments later, an all-black chareeb that had a head that resembled a saber tooth tiger held its head high as it approached me from the side; its eyes were a super light blue, which made it standout from all the other chareebs. I immediately started to wonder what the creature's abilities were when it sat on its two back legs, scratched its left ear once, and just looked at me. That's when Amilena came over to me with an all-red chareeb on her shoulder that had yellowish orange eyes and a small stream of smoke constantly rising from either side of it's mouth. She'd put her hair into a bun on top of her head, but she allowed two strands of her curly brown hair to fall down on either side of her face, and I thought it made her beauty stand out even more than it already did. "I think it's chosen you... Do you accept her?" She says to me, I look at her, and then I look at the all-black character and it's amazing blue eyes. "She's the only one that's all black and has blue eyes. I think I will accept her, but how do you know it's a girl?" I ask, "Loiko... Or sensei said, that only the girls have tails," she says. I then walk up to the chareeb, then I kneel down on one knee and I say, "So, you chose me, huh?" and the chareeb lowers its head and lifts its head as if it just bowed to me, "Wow, flame didn't do that when we picked each other." She says, "You named yours?" I ask her, "Of course, sensei said we'll have them forever; they're immortal and can be resurrected if they do die." she says,  "Okay, well, I'll call you midnight; you like that?" I say, looking at the chareeb, as soon as I finish what I was saying, it leaps onto my shoulder. "Well, I'll take that as a yes." I say to myself more than to anyone else. "Midnight, I like that; you guys already look like a dangerous duo,"  Amilena said as her chareeb, that she calls Flame, is rubbing its head against her neck. That was when sensei called us back near the limestone circle that lowered us down to where we are now. Everyone at that point had found a chareeb; all the other chareeb seemed to disappear before we even knew they were gone. Sensei explained to us that we would end this war that's been going on for more than thirteen years in just a couple of days. I'm pretty sure all of us thought the same exact thought, "Is that even possible?" I thought this, regardless of our amazingly powerful abilities, our new immortal companions, and the things we were to learn soon, like the lotus style.

I know everyone hadn't been trained for war as me and Benji were, just having powers didn't mean you were ready to take down five hundred men or more on a battlefield on your own, some of us would soon be immortal Gods, but as of now, any of us could easily be killed by a simple mistake.Mistakes equal death in war.But, the only exception on that thought was Beda, I feel that she is the reason Loiko...Or sensei had faith that we could end a war that's been going on for more than half the time that I've been alive on this planet.She could literally turn oxygen into carbon dioxide and that ability alone would make us unstoppable against the Vesh army, as long as she could use it on command that is...Sensei explained that for the first two days we would be taming our emotions and beginning to master at least three of the twelve lotus styles, and during this time, we'll be training and getting familiar with our chareebs, at the same time, sensei made it very clear that we would continue to carry out small precisely coordinated strikes and missions on various different bases, and by the end of the first week or two our companions will be fully grown and will be able to look out for themselves in hostile situations.But until then, sensei said we wouldn't be bringing them on any of the small or potentially bigger missions."When do we start our training?", I ask him, "Today." he tells me, then the warrior named Danguzo says, "Why has Zokoso been chosen as basically the groups leader?"."His father appointed him as leader, and I recommend that you respect his father, the late King's wishes." sensei says."I would like to challenge him for leadership.", Danguzo says, as his brown chareeb purrs against his leg, sensei then looks to me for my response, and I know he can see the irritated look on my face, midnight leaps back onto the floor, somehow understanding what was about to happen."My brother could kill you...", Benji says, and a confident grin spreads across my face, "I could, but I'll play with him.", I think to myself, Danguzo just looks at my brother briefly with an annoyed look on his face."I accept, the fun.", I say, "Step into the circle, first to set two feet out of the circle, yield, or die wins the fight and they'll assume the role of leadership." sensei says.Once we both enter to the middle of the limestone circle sensei says, "Abilities and weapons of any kind are allowed, even poison."."You're wasting your time Danguzo.", Kazumo says, the only one besides my brother who's somewhat sparred with me, "Begin." sensei says and immediately Danguzo lunges toward me with a punch to my face, I turn to the left giving him a clean shot to the left side of my jaw, when it lands, the lower half of my cheek bruises but begins to heal just as quickly and before he can throw another punch I grab his fist, pull and twist it downward, and quickly put him into a head lock and kick the middle of both his legs which cause him to fall to his knees, I quickly let go of the headlock, stand up straight and draw my sword within the blink of an eye and put it up against the back of his neck, a single drop of blood spilled from his neck, my sword was at an angle where the plunge of my black katana would either paralyze his whole body or kill him, "Dead." I say to him, I wouldn't kill him, I wouldn't try to kill him, but I definitely wouldn't let him kill me.I take my sword away from his neck and as soon as I do that he stands up, turns to face me and says "I won't yield that easily Zokoso.", "I don't wanna hurt you Danguzo.", I tell him, sheathing my sword, but he proceeds again to lunge towards me with his right hand leading his strike.Then all of a sudden I hear a voice say "It's your time to choose, mortal or immortal, God or human, what will it be.", at the same time everything slowed down, and the one thing I always thought, when I thought about this day was "I've been waiting years for this day, the day I become a God."

                                                                    

Then, the voice said "So, your name shall be revealed and you shall be known from now on as Vel'mair the God of beast.", immediately after these words were spoken I felt different, lighter, faster, more powerful, and Danguzo stopped midway through his attack with a shocked look on his face, "Y-your, forehead man, is that a third ability?", he asks, after he mentioned it I felt a warm sensation on my forehead and when I put my hand up to my face I see a small golden light hitting it, a voice speaks once more and says to speak my name once and all will be final, "Vel'mair the God of beast.", I say and the golden light stops shining, but I can feel the markings on my forehead, probably a symbol that translates to meaning my name. Sensei quickly appears in between me and Danguzo before the fight continues and says, "Stop, Danguzo, there's no point; Zokoso's no longer a mortal; he's made the last step into becoming a god; he has more than two abilities, as well." "What, why did he get to choose? I'm eighteen too." Danguzo pleads, and I have to admit that was a valid question because there were four of us that were eighteen years old, so why was I given the choice before everyone else?". "We all have our time; perhaps this is the Gods telling us and you that Zokoso has been chosen as the leader of this group for a reason... Do you understand that Danguzo?" sensei says to him with a pretty stern look on his face. I then look around and stumble upon Kazumo, my brother, and Amilena smiling at me, Kazumo though, had this really big grin on his face, it makes me smile seeing him look so cheesy as some say and I walk over to him "Why are you smiling so hard Kaz?", I ask him, and as soon as he begins to respond, midnight, my chareeb leaps silently back onto my shoulder in an agile manner, "He was never gonna win, I would've bet on it, but no one wanted to bet against one of the kings sons, let alone the one who can't feel pain and basically can't be hurt, plus your brother wasn't gonna bet against you." he said to me, then I look at midnight and say "You hear that midnight?", and she looks at me and purrs against my neck. "Anyhow, my students, shall we begin with the first test, a test of endurance and strength? Danguzo, you can train with your bow if you like since you've done the three tests already; the rest of you step back onto the limestone circle,"  sensei says. A couple seconds later we're standing about on natural ground again. All of us were probably trying to get ready for whatever crazy training exercise sensei was about to have us doing, and before anyone could ask what we were about to do, he vanishes in a blur, and before you knew it, there are five huge stone boulders, one for each of us, I assumed, but what did he want us to do with them? "I need all of you to pick up a boulder, or stone if you will, and take one thousand steps in or around the land of these many trees," he says, with not a hint of sarcasm in his voice at all, Loiko... Our sensei was dead serious about the stone and a thousand steps, and I'd become a god, so maybe this type of thing would be easy, but what about the others? Let's get it on with here. I walk up to one of the stones, and once midnight jumps and slides onto my back hanging onto my clothes with her little sharp nails, I attempt to lift the stone that was about three times bigger than a watermelon. As I start to lift it up, I realize that it's easy to pick up. I lift it over my head, look at all the others for a split second, and say, "They might be heavy, but they're not as heavy as we think." "Says the God." Amilena says, smiling. I begin to jog with the stone, and then once I was comfortable, I started to run with the stone, shortening up how long it would take me to get to a thousand steps.