The King's Game - Seven Calamities Arc (Part 2)

Chapter 25: The Change Begins

It had been a prytorst since Stain left to find and deal with Newgate, it was during his absence that Royland suffered his first defeat. Royland had been thinking about ways to change the Gods' ways when he felt the most immense murderous intent he had felt since he killed Viezil.

"Dahk how did none of the golems on patrol sense this intent until now?" Royland said telepathically to Dahk, "Dahk? Why aren't you replying?"

Royland made his way outside the castle and closer to the murderous intent. None of the golems could be seen, even their auras had vanished, instead what Royland found was a man seated on the ground with a small cube in his hands.

"Do not worry, they are fine. Once you observe an issue for long enough, the situation becomes painfully easy to see." The man said as he finished matching the colours on the cube, "Took me 26 moves by the way. Did you know they call it the Gods' number? Weird right, I mean what does the number 26 have to do with the Gods? Or is it what does the Gods have to do with the number 26?"

Royland readied his weapon, yet despite the man being seated and his lax attitude, Royland could not find any openings on the man.

"Your eyes show confusion more than anything. Perhaps I have found the wrong person? Or perhaps there is more to this reality than what meets the eye. To save myself the embarrassment; You are Royland right?"

Royland did not know what the strange man's power was, and that caution prevented him from talking, all Royland could do was nod in agreement.

"I cannot bring myself to envy you, as you are the exact same as me. Our eyes are dead, void of any sign of living. We are nothing more than walking corpses, and you too have suffered greatly. This I can tell."

Once again Royland did nothing but nod his head in agreement, yet his hand remained ready on his sword.

"Are you not going to attack your enemy; despite the fact that I am merely sitting her unarmed?"

Royland stood frozen in his readied position, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. The murderous intent that Royland had felt earlier was completely gone, yet something had prevented Royland from moving. The strange man stood up, calmly walked over to Royland and placed a finger on Royland's forehead. From the position they were in Royland could clearly see the man's eyes, yet there was no substance to them, they had no life, no will behind them.

"What are you? You seem like some sort of a puppet." Royland said without moving a muscle.

The man did not smile, nor did he have a cocky attitude, he simply blinked and said, "You have been defeated in less than 26 moves ... I am the calamity of Envy, Neo Vega. I don't know why, but you are an obstacle to our leader. Leave this place before people who want nothing more than destruction come for you. They will not physically leave you in one piece as I have."

A streak of energy rushed towards Royland and Vega, the blast hit Royland square in the chest, shattering several of Royland's ribs. Royland, eyes in the back of his head, dropped to his knees and fell forward.

"Why are you here and what is the meaning of this sorcerer?" Vega asked in a calm manner as he walked towards the man standing in the distance.

"I knew it was a mistake to send you, so I followed you and look what I find; Mr. Vega here betraying our master and warning the enemy that we are coming for him. Now as the Grand Master I could not let that happen, so I did your job for you. Not to mention I will be claiming the reward for this job, maybe the master will tell me the location of a powerful magic book." Grand Master said with a spark of excitement in his eyes.

"Your greed will get you kill one vrot sorcerer."

The two calamities began their journey back to their base and away from the defeated and unconscious Royland.

Royland woke up only to find himself all alone. He knew that it had not been Vega that had attacked him, so it had to be the others that Vega was trying to warn him about. The pain was excruciating, and Royland raised a hand to try to heal his broken ribs, yet the flames did not appear nor did the pain subside. Confused Royland tried again, yet the result remained the same as it had when he made his previous attempt.

"What's going on?" Royland thought to himself as the pain became worse each time he took a breath.

The skies above Royland began to close with thick and dark thunderous clouds which sent a shiver down Royland's spine. Lightning struck down and hit the castle wall, as the wall came down with a booming sound.

"You traitor! To think that Viezil had one last card to play. How dare you fool me for all these krosts, knowing what happened to me; you filthy dragonkin! I will wipe your tainted blood from this world. They are almost ready, and once they are I will send them to complete your mission and destroy you. You failed experiments are of no use to me anymore!" Judesis' voice bellowed to Royland.

"What are you talking about father? Why can I no longer heal?"

"It would seem that you are indeed injured, that will make this easier. You will burn down along with that castle you have made for yourself. Your connection to the heavens has already been severed, if I were you I wouldn't try to survive."

Judesis' voice vanished as multiple bolts of lightning shot down from the clouds and ripped through the castle. Royland watched in shock and confusion as the castle crumbled to the ground and the forest begun to burn. Royland tried to move but the pain was too much for him to handle, he also worried that he might puncture a lung if he wasn't careful. Royland resigned himself to the fate of burning to death and closed his eyes. He knew the Gods were not above betraying their own, he had witnessed it before, he just wished he could have lived long enough to change it.

Royland felt himself being lifted up by what felt like stone, through the pain he opened his eyes and saw Dahk carrying him. Dahk was mostly cracked and three times smaller than he had originally been, it seemed as if Dahk himself had narrowly avoided getting destroyed, but by the Gods or the Calamities, Royland could not say.

"Dahk what are you doing? My ties to the heavens have been cut, you should have crumbled already as I was the one that changed you in a golem." Royland half whispered to Dahk.

The golem looked down at Royland face and Royland could have sworn he saw the little boy's face instead of the stone face, "You saved my life when I was about to be killed by that hound. I was nothing but a slave before, my parents sold me at a young age to the baron for money. You saving my life and turning me into this golem gave me a life, the chance to be free. So I will gladly use the last of my life before I turn to dust to save yours." Dahk said, yet it was not the voice of the stone golem, no it was the voice of the slave boy Royland used to create Dahk.

Royland smiled as tears streamed down his face, "I'm so sorry I could not end the cycle of the Gods' greed, I'm so sorry I failed to properly save your life, I'm so sorry I failed you."

Nothing more was said as Dahk carried Royland out of the Desolate Plains. Some distance from the Desolate Plains Dahk's legs crumbled and he fell to the ground. He could no longer maintain his form and with one last smile he mouthed the words "I'm sorry" to Royland as he crumbled to dust. Royland covered face with his one hand, as if to prevent the Gods from seeing him cry. It wasn't long before he felt something prick him in the neck and his consciousness faded.