Festering Evil: Shattered Past Book 4

Prologue

Four hundred years prior to the arrival of James-17, before the creation of the vanguard. There were no guardians. There were only Iron Lords. The Lords of Iron had discovered an ancient power that lay in the ruins of Old Russia, a power that could restore them and humanity to its former glory. SIVA, a self-replicating nanomachine, designed to provide assistance to humanity in any way it was programmed. The Iron Lords descended upon the lands until Rasputin responded. Unleashing torrents of frames and constructs on the Iron Legion. Of the one thousand who arrived, only ten arrived at their destination. 

"Okay, so what now?" Skorri asked the group behind her. 

"We look around, hopefully, we can find a control panel of some sort," Gheleon replied. 

"Okay, then what?"

"Then we pray to whatever gods are above us that this wasn't all for nothing." 

The pair of Iron lords began looking around the chamber with the other eight that were with them. They had known each other for more than a hundred years, they were incredibly close friends. Some of them eventually fell in love with the others. What they had all expected to be a simple extraction mission became a war, a war where many of their friends died. 

"I may have found something," Felwinter said to the group. 

"What is it?" Perun asked her companion. 

"It may be a control panel." He said walking over and pressing a few buttons. 

"We're making a big mistake," Charon stated to the group. 

"TOO MANY HAVE DIED FOR THIS CHARON WE ARE NOT LEAVING WHEN WE HAVE IT IN OUR GRASP!" Silimar yelled. 

Then with a few more button pushes, a red symbol emerged from the chamber and the red nanobots began to flow out of the floors and walls like a river. 

"What's going on?" Skorri asked nervously. 

"I-I don't know! I can't stop it!" Felwinter yelled nervously. 

The nano-machines then flew in a massive stream towards Felwinter consuming him in a red mist. Felwinter screamed in pain as the nanomachines began to burrow into his armor and his skin. Skorri slowly backed away, then she could see through his helmet visor, a red symbol in both his eyes. His armor was a jet black with red accents. He then leaped at Skorri who attempted to use her pulse rifle to stop him. "FELWINTER! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!" She exclaimed as he pinned her to the floor. 

Charon pointed his handcannon at the creature who had her pinned. Until Gheleon pushed it down. "What are you thinking?! He's our friend!" 

Charon pointed again, ignoring Gheleon all together and fired a round at now corrupted Felwinter. Felwinter absorbed the bullet and his attention now focused on Charon. The collective of Iron Lords began to futilely strike at the mites that were around them. Soon their numbers began to dwindle, and one of them realized that there was only one way out of this. One way that they could protect what remained of humanity.  

Charon placed an explosive device in the center of the replication chamber and he was then taken into the depths of the earth by the SIVA tendrils. Jolder seeing her chance, found the detonator and picked it up. She ran to the door and saw Saladin, standing with his back facing her. He turned around and saw a detonator in her hand. Saladin cared deeply for Jolder, she was his closest friend, and the two of them eventually fell in love. She then pressed the door to close it. 

"JOLDER! DON'T!" He exclaimed running over to the doorway. 

"Saladin, I love you." She said before the door finally shut, and a thunderous boom could be heard from the outside. Saladin slammed the door with his knees on the ground and banging his fist on the door. In a gamble to bring back an age he barely knew, he lost everything. A soft plink could be heard from the Iron Lord. Tears. Something that he had not known or felt for a long time: Sadness. Saladin rose up from the ground and began walking out of the chamber, now a monument to his sins. His ax head began to drag and scrape along the metal ground. He walked slowly as if the bodies of his fallen comrades now rested upon his shoulders. The blood stained ground that had surrounded the replication chamber was littered with the corpses of hundreds of Iron Lords. 

"Saladin, I could just take you to your ship." His ghost Damascus stated to him. 

"I don't want to avoid this Damascus. I need to see our losses first hand, to know how big of a mistake I made." 

"This wasn't your fault Saladin, you couldn't have predicted this." 

"Charon warned me Damascus, and I didn't listen." He said kneeling down on one of the corpses of an Iron Lord, a woman, a warlock by the looks of her armor. "This was entirely my fault." He said standing up from the ground. 

Saladin continued to roam through the desolation of the plaguelands, only a few hours ago this place was filled with a thousand men and women under the Iron Banner. Now, only he remained. How could this happen to them? They were an order thousands strong, hardened by decades of combat. He looked in the area around him, there was smoke and fire all around, filling the air with the scent of war. Their cause was just. All they sought was to bring their world back to the prominence it once flourished in. All that he wanted was to bring hope to the city. Now all his friends were dead. 

"I pray that this will not happen again," Saladin said gritting his teeth gripping the ax tightly. "How could this happen, how could I let this happen?" 

"Saladin, it wasn't your fault." 

"It was Damascus, I know it is!" Saladin exclaimed. His yelling attracted the attention of something, something big. A colossal defense construct emerged from the earth and loomed over him. The beast was massive, a mechanical monstrosity bred by golden age experimentation and military technology. A literal titan. Saladin looked up to the beast, filled with rage at himself, and if there were no Iron Lords left then who would stop it from reaching the City? Nobody. It would annihilate everyone. 

"Someone has to stop it." Saladin thought to himself. He then gripped the ax hilt tighter. "I have to stop it." 

"Saladin, how?" Damascus asked him. "It's practically a skyscraper." 

"I have no other choice," Saladin said gritting his teeth. "IF I DON'T STOP IT WHO WILL!?" He exclaimed. Damascus took notice of something, the surface temperature around Saladin was increasing. Immensely, by several hundreds of degrees per second. Saladin's eyes began to flash different colors, between the usual white and brown and a pure glowing white with orange around the edges. "TO MANY HAVE DIED FROM MY MISTAKES!" Saladin exclaimed. Pillars of fire erupted out of the ground in the distance and ascended into the heavens. "MY FRIENDS, MY FAMILY, I LET THEM DIE!" He exclaimed. Then a final pillar erupted around Saladin encompassing him in the flames. Then, the flames died out, and beneath the colossus stood Saladin, the first to discover the power that lay deep inside of all guardians. 

With Solar energy coursing through his veins Saladin looked up to the colossus and it looked down on him. "Your fight is with me, creature!" Saladin yelled gesturing his ax with one hand. The ax was bright with flames, it was so hot it could cut through pure metal in one slice. The colossus raised its massive metallic fist to slam it into the lone Iron Lord. Saladin moved around it and leaped onto the hand of the beast and with one slice of his ax cleaved the fist off the monster. The creature roared in pain raising it's now handless forearm into the air. Saladin placed the ax on his back and ran faster than he ever did before towards the abomination. 

With his fists burning with the fires of the sun Saladin leaped into the air towards the beast. When he would jump without using his lift ability he could only clear about half a meter. But now he was soaring through the air five hundred meters above the Earth. Saladin then cocked his fist behind his head and delivered a punch so powerful it sent the colossus sprawling to the ground. Saladin continued to send his fist into the face of the monster, causing visible cuts from the pure heat of his hands. The creature collapsed into the Earth causing snow, dirt, and debris to go flying around the area where it fell. 

Saladin then took his ax off his back and it glowed so brightly it could have been mistaken for a star on Earth. Saladin swung the ax over his head then plunged the head into the face of the metal monster. The blade cut through the steel like a hot knife through cold butter, cleaving through metal and wires to finally reach the monsters brain core. Without a brain, the red eyes of the machination turned off. Saladin stood there, breathing heavily, then taking the now cold blade out of the beast. He placed the ax on his back and he returned to his normal state. With his rage now gone, he felt only emptyness in its place. There was nothing left to do, but return to the Iron Temple, and wait for SIVA's eventual return.