Project R.K.O

Book One: Insurrection

It was dark inside the forest, Kaos could barely see among the tall canopy and small slivers of light that passed through its leaves. The last thing he could remember was lying among the ruins of a destroyed village, then some men grabbed him, chained his arms and legs together and started leading him through this dense forest, twice. The first group had been attacked by what he could only gather to be bandits as he looked around the forest, trying to get his bearings and let his eyes adjust to the darkness. He looked at the men, all carrying swords or knives of some sort, there were a lot of them, Kaos counted at least thirty. They continued walking, Kaos wondering whether or not he had enough power to free himself and escape from these impudent humans. 'I save their world from destruction and this is how I'm treated?' Kaos thought. They finally came to a clearing, but it was covered by a shower of darkness. Kaos could have sworn it was still daylight, they hadn't been walking for that long.

He looked up and could barely make out a castle among the trees, the bandits kept walking until they reached the middle of the clearing, there was a single tree there. A giant tree that held up the bandit castle stood, it's roots outstretched and interconnected among the smaller trees. The bandits led Kaos to the base of the great tree and stepped inside, there was a spiral staircase that led up into the heart of the tree. The bandits marched Kaos up the staircase and into the main hall of the castle, where the rest of the bandits and their king were enjoying themselves eating and drinking. Something was strange about these bandits however, they seemed like more than the average marauder. Kaos looked closely at them, trying to find out why he had such a strong feeling of familiarity. Then he saw it, on the back of a man's hand was a red tattoo of a bird flying in a circle, it's beak opened in such a fashion that it would swallow its tail. Kaos recognized it as the symbol of the god of the Burning Sun, Valus. 'That man can't be the herald of Valus, can he?' Kaos thought, craning his neck to see the tattoo again as he walked past. He knew Valus had no herald, he had Pharos, his Phoenix. An immortal embodiment of his power. He had no need for humans, so what was this one doing with the mark of the sun god?

The bandits stopped and threw Kaos in front of their king. Sitting on a throne made from the bark of the tree. Kaos looked very closely at the king, he was a slender, tall but strong. That much was obvious just by looking at him, he was slightly muscular, but lean. his face chiseled and almost sharp looking, the king was only 17 years old. The look of confusion and intimidation he gave off didn't faze Kaos however, because this "king" was still a human, a lesser being. Kaos looked up at the king, looked the boy directly in his eyes, and saw that one of his eyes was false. The king's left eye was a glass ball, and on that glass ball was his mark, the mark of Kaos. The mark was clear as day, a tattoo of black lines intertwining and spelling the Imperial's name, "Kaos".

The king looked down at Kaos and saw that not only did he seem older, but he was also studying him. The king looked at the bandit who led the convoy and spoke "Who is this? Why have you brought him before me? Your mission was to eliminate the group of raiders from Providence." The bandit responded "We did sir, however we found them destroying a village, they took an interest in this boy. I overheard them say something about him falling from the sky. They took an interest in him, so we did too. " The boy considered this and looked closely at Kaos, seeing no evidence of a god mark or that he was anything more than a human. "You fell from the sky? That's a new one." the king said to Kaos, bending down to face him, a sword resting in his hand. "What's your name?" the king said, Kaos looked at the man, focusing on the mark on his glass eye. "You don't need to know my name." At that moment the hall went silent, all eyes were on the chained boy who purposefully defied the king of the Crimson Chains. At first the bandits laughed, they had never seen a prisoner with such bravery. Then the same man with mark of Valus stepped forward behind Kaos, "Do you want me to deal with this fool my king, perhaps I can get him to speak? He is certainly bold. Stupid, but bold." 'King?' Kaos thought to himself, 'This fool is their king?' The king laughed "Knock yourself out Viridian, he has lost my interest anyhow." Viridian then made a fist of the hand with the mark of Valus, suddenly the tattoo began to glow red-hot, the eyes of the bird glowing white. Steam began to pour from the tattoo, the man's hand then burst into flames. As Kaos expected he was unharmed, and with a smug look on his face Viridian launched a fireball at Kaos. "Part of me did not want to have to do this." Kaos admitted, he then turned and held his arms in front of the fireball, which exploded and melted the chains that bound him. In that same moment Kaos broke the chain that blind his feet and moved. For a moment to all those watching him, he had disappeared and suddenly he was there, holding Viridian's wrist as he sank to his knees in pain.

"Terrible shame Valus chose to give power to someone like you, you haven't even scratched the surface of how to wield the power of a god." Kaos said, before throwing Viridian into the wall at the other side of the room. All was silent among the bandits, then a loud roar was heard, as the king swung his sword with all his might at Kaos, sensing this Kaos ducked under the blade and using his own strength grabbed the weapon and redirected it to the king's throat. But the king stopped the blade with his bare hand, and was unharmed. "Hmm, fighting you might actually be fun, but be warned you are facing a mighty King! The King of the Crimson Chains! If you surrender now, I won't have to kill you. I might even consider taking you under my wing, making you one of us!" with this the king kicked Kaos away and lunged at him with the sword again, Kaos skillfully dodged all his attacks, then jumped to stand on the king's blade mid-strike and kicked him backwards to the foot of his throne. "I think I'm the one who's going to have to consider not killing someone today." Kaos taunted as he landed. The king them stood up, a look of anger and disbelief on his face 'Who is this guy, he doesn't even have a weapon and he's still pretty strong . . . Enough! It's time to end this!' the king thought, he then closed his eyes and gathered his strength, a black ring appeared around him and began to spin, purple arcs of dark energy leaping from place to place among the ring. 'He is so not about to try and kill me with my own power.' Kaos thought annoyed. The purple arcs began to get bigger and their noise louder, the king then took a deep breath, and suddenly the ring exploded with energy, he was surrounded in a field of black energy, he opened his eyes and right away Kaos could see his mark glowing in the man's false eye. "It's time to end this, I'll give you the satisfaction of hearing you're a worthy adversary for making me go this far. But now it's over." the king then ran at Kaos with increased speed and swung the blade, but Kaos saw right through the attack.

A wicked smile crept across his face as he muttered, "Fool." It took everything in Kaos's being not to kill the king. He stopped the king's sword with the back of his bare hand then rushed him, slamming his head into the floor with his opposite hand. The bandits fell silent as a shock wave blew throughout the hall and the energy surrounding the king faded, tables were thrown about and many of the bandits were strewn around the room like ragdolls. "Time to take back what's mine." Kaos said as a violent electric shock went through the king's body as the mark faded from his glass eye. Kaos then stood and looked around at the bandits, their wide eyed expressions and disbelief matched that of their king, he had their attention now. It was time to get some answers. "You all have marks of the gods, but these marks are only given to those who swear allegiance with them and fight for their cause. How is that?" Kaos asked, looking down at the king, he slowly got up and looked at Kaos. "We live to serve the Citadel. We were blessed with these marks years ago by the gods in return for our promise to fight for their cause and whim, and that is just what we have been doing. That convoy that kidnapped you had already been swallowed by darkness and corruption, the same goes for the providence. We've been trying to destroy it, before it destroys us. The darkness has ravaged most of this world and its people."

Kaos looked around the hall, saw the marks of many of the gods present among the bandits. "You all are very lucky we're on the same side, I intend to banish this darkness back to the infinite embrace of the Void, for that I will need some assistance." With a coy smile Kaos looked about the room, "Any volunteers?" The bandits hastily took a knee before Kaos, the king looked at Kaos bitterly, before taking a knee with the rest of the bandits. "That's more like it." Kaos said as he walked and sat in the throne of the bandit king.