Mars Underneath The Sceptre of Eternity

Mission Ogganesia

The cave chamber was spacious enough to accommodate a hundred people; it had a stone dais in the midst of the cave. The cave wall was irregular with dripstones and stalactites; cave floor was wet and slippery. There was a small lake inside the cave which was full of small black serpentine, electrogenic fish species, they were called the Black Eels. Emereon noticed that those fishes were jumping in the water; he felt sick to see those creatures in front of him; but he could not leave the cave.

On the dais, there was a throne made up of bones and skulls of human beings. The back rest of the throne had nine large skulls of giants; Emereon had never seen such large headed giants in his lifetime, he thought, where did those gigantic skulls come from. He felt terror in his heart. A man draped in a black coloured floor-length robe of a coarse fabric was sitting on that ugly skull throne. His face was partially seen through the hood over it. Emereon realised that the person was no ordinary human being but a Firepheny; with a skull type face covered by red scales and two red glittering hollows in the place of the eyes. Oylon forced him to kneel down before that ugly creature. D'eimeonn knelt before the figure.

"Your Esteemed; the King of Ogganesia; the true King of Mars." D'eimeonn and Oylon said in chorus.

"Rise." A shrill voice asked; D'eimeonn and Oylon stood up; but Oylon did not allow Emereon to rise; he felt a sharp pain in his head.

"Ask the Half-Breed to touch his head on the floor." The shrill voice ordered.

Emereon bent down and pressed his head against the cave floor to satisfy that ugly creature.

"Am I ugly? So, you Don't like my face?" The shrill voice asked.

'He is a Thought Reader, I forgot.' Emereon thought desperately and apologised for his mistake. "Forgive me, Your Omnipotent."

"Anyway, I can change my appearance; don't worry." The man on the skull throne, removed his hood; Emereon saw that he had a reddish face without hair and ears; his eyes were reddish yellow, oval shaped patches without eyeballs; not dark black like other Old Martes people. His face was like a skull, but elongated towards the back. His teeth were black and sharps. He had no thick lips like other Old Martes people; but the lips were very thin. Emereon felt a surge of fear in his heart; 'Firepheny; the vent people'; he had never seen Firepheny in his life.

"We call ourselves Oggadians, not Fire-Diggers." The man said, "I am sorry to know that you do not like my face." He brought out his left hand from his loose long robe; Emereon saw a white rod in his hand. He raised it above his head and closed his yellowish eyes for a while. Emereon did not hear him to chant any spell; but he saw the figure in front of him turned into Queen Zealeoness.

"Aunt Zealeoness;" He gasped; the woman in front of him laughed. He again raised his rod and closed his eyes. Now he turned into a bald man in a sailor's cloth. He realised it was no other than Sailor Alden; the most trustworthy men of Synus. He vowed to send Synus's wife and son to the Kingdom of Sevrot; he also vowed to reclaim the little prince's birth right.

"Sailor Alden" Emereon gasped again; the man again changed his appearance into Chief Belicoseon; "Stop it. Stop this black magic." Emereon screamed.

"We are Soul Suckers; we do not kill our enemies; just suck their soul and consciousness from their bodies; then we can transform our appearance." Again the man came into his real ugly shape.

"Who are you and why are you doing all these things?" Emereon asked.

"Good question; I want to free my planet and its original inhabitants from slavery; I want to free Ogganesia from the aliens and halflen species like you and finally I want my planet-men to enjoy all resources of this planet. These are my aims."

"What is Ogganesia?"

"Mars; we call it Ogganesia and call ourselves its children, the Oggadians."

"Ergonn has already freed all thralls..."

"He cannot rule here; he has Earth blood; we want to free this planet from aliens."

"So, you want to kill Ergonn like the others you killed?"

The man chuckled; "I did not kill anyone; just sucked their soul; their consciousness; their memory and left the body aside. My men are little bit foolish that they left Zealeoness's body in the village, anyway; we have other identities to deceive the King."

"So, you want to suck Ergonn's soul?"

"Unfortunately, no; my own man D'eimeonn will get angry with me; if I do so; but I want Ergonn's rod."

"Rod?"

"Sceptre or whatever you call it; and you'll help me to do so."

Emereon gasped; though he had no love for Ergonn, but he never thought of stealing the sceptre from the King. It would be a high treason, a sin.

"High or low, treason is treason; you humans are doing treason with us for five thousand years; now it is our time to take revenge."

"Why now?" Emereon asked.

"Because we the Firepheny have discovered the secrets of eternal life; we have got the mystery of surviving on the surface; earlier we could not survive in fresh air and water, but; now we can."

D'eimeonn came close to Emereon and said; "Ergonn's sceptre has magical power, our leader Grusxo believes so."

"D'eimeonn," the shrill voice screamed; "I don't believe; it is a fact."

Emereon said, "Father too does not like him..."

"I don't care what your father likes; now you came to know about our mission, so, it is the right time to suck your soul. I require your identity."

Emereon gasped, "NO", the voiced laughed shrilly. He raised his bone like sceptre high in the air and a blue light flashed at the top of it. Emereon saw darkness all around him and then he saw an amazing reddish golden light in front of him. He could not stand anymore and fell down on the cave floor.

D'eimeonn came close to Emereon and checked his breath and pulse; "No life." He announced in a horrified voice.

"Good, he should not have; but Oylon, don't leave the body unattended; keep it in the cave vault; we need to preserve it for future purpose. You people have destroyed my chance of playing Zealeoness in the palace." Grusxo came down from the dais leaving his skull throne behind. He changed his appearance into Emereon and asked Oylon to do the same. Oylon converted himself into Arold Suas Montem.

"Let's go to the catacomb of the Eagle Guards." Emereon or Grusxo told.

D'eimeonn, Arold and Emereon walked towards a dark cave passage; Old Martes men did not need light to see in the darkness; so, all of them started walking confidently towards another cave chamber. D'eimeonn consulted the map thoroughly and found that their destination was not too far. After crossing four more dark and narrow corridors; they finally reached before a black coloured stone door.

"Our destination!" Grusxo or Emereon smiled and he came forward to open the door. The door was not locked; Emereon easily pushed the door backwards and saw a tall, thin man was lighting his torch from the Eternal Flame of the Lamp of Valour.

Oylon or Arold wanted to create blue smoke; he brought out a big bone from his sack and wanted to burn it in the fire of a torch hanging from the cave wall. Grusxo held his hand tightly, "No; he has come from the main entrance where we had already created the blue smoke; but it had no impact on him; means High Priest was absolutely right, our spell will not work on aliens from other planets. This man's soul is related to Earth; half of his consciousness and memory are related to the Blue Planet; so, we cannot suck his soul or we cannot obscure his mind; at least not in human environs."

"He will win." D'eimeonn whispered.

"Let him go first; we can use Blazerrick and others against him; but not our spells."