Scout Of Sorrow
The 13 Royal Plagues Series, Book 1

Chapter 6: “Re-Route To Chaos”

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“…I don’t remember very much about what was happening, other than the fact that I needed to run away as far as I can. At such a point in time, it was feelings for loved ones that I found myself forced to discard. The screams of men, women, and children all rose. Pillars of sound, escalating to a point of deafness for those whose ears were preyed upon. Alas, all of the screaming continued ‘til I felt the gusting whirlwind behind me. I only looked back for a second or so, but that was enough for me to witness a simple glimpse of that maddened man; Alesticar, twirling that staff of his which was so dear to him. In a feral, callous swoop or two, that vile beast had struck down countless beings, severing their heads, and spilling their blood onto the dried soil, sweetening it once again with the rich, red nutrient of life. I ordinarily would wallow in despair at such a ghastly sight, but my sense of survival and instinctive necessity to document all of these events for the public’s eye drove me forward. The brilliant orange eyes glowed behind me. I dared not look back and succumb to his wretched domain. I dare not…"


-Excerpt from “Indaricas’ Handbook To The Apocalypse, Chapter 1, Verse 6

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Vod just stood there, taking in everything that the King had to say, and it was apparent by the tapping of his foot that the current status from the government was not a pleasant one.
“Just what in the hell do you mean he’s not here?” Vod said, his voice strained, as if he were within a centimeter of screeching into the mouthpiece; deafening the King.
“It’s just as I told you.” The King stated calmly through the transmission. “We had an agent on Bezantarkask 4 FAR long before we even called any of you in. She has apparently been in orbit by one of the neighboring planets, but her transmission was jammed by Alesticar’s tech teams as they left the surface. She’s only just recently found a loophole through the hacked system, and has been relaying her transmissions back and forth. She furiously apologized to us, saying that she was trying everything in her power to contact us sooner…”
“Great. Just peachy as hell.” Vod started pacing quickly in a very short line. His aggressor valves were billowing out steam like no tomorrow, and the neon green lenses that on his mask were now turning into a deep red.

The King and Vod talked back and forth, leaving the others out of the conversation. Wasaii, Ensagar, Mazalic, Diy, and everyone else looked at each other with faces of boredom, wondering when the heated debate between the universal-assassin and the undisputed ruler of the universe would end.
“How could this happen...” Vod said, stopping his pacing and finally standing still. “…I thought you assured me that the pawns would be set in place, and that they would hold him here for as long as possible, even IF he had assistance.
“Well apparently we didn’t send enough now, did we?” The King said, impatience lining his manner of speech.
“Well…” Vod sighed, giving up on arguing with the King. “…Could you at least tell us what the informant told you?”
“She said that she has her ship orbiting by one of the stationary moons, that she’s running low on supplies, and needs a pick-up. Other than that, she just said that Alesticar left Bezantarkask with an entire fleet of Wereix’Ban ships, probably headed towards the 2nd seal. Wh-?” Before the King could finish, Vod hung up the transmission device.
“What is it Vod?” Mazalic asked, everybody else looking at the assassin with the same question lingering in their eyes.
“We have to go.” Vod said immediately, heading back towards the direction of the ship.

---

When the group got within sight of the ship, they knew that something was wrong. Several figures were walking around the ship. Wereix’Banians.
“Well this is great.” Vod sighed. “On top of having a loose Plague in the universe, our ship is being confiscated by the enemy.”
“Lexia!” Dgrasda exclaimed. “I left her in there as I ran to give you the message!” His fists clenched and unclenched, not sure as to what he was going to do.
“Hold, Dgrasda.” Vod commanded. “You may be made up of weapons, but even the greatest of heroes can be taken down if they’re heavily outnumbered.”
“So you want me to just sit here and subject Lexia to those foul creatures?!” Dgrasda whirled around and shouted at Vod.
“No, I’m just saying that we should go in there as a team, don’t be reckless and throw your life away if the cause looks like it needs assistance from your allies.” Vod began a lecture which nobody, especially Dgrasda, wanted to hear. “Your intentions may be noble, but that doesn’t mean that-” Vod was interrupted as the Wereix’Banians caught sight of their group, after Dgrasda has throw his rather loud temper tantrum at Vod.
“God damn it. They know we’re here now.” Mazalic cursed under his breath.
“I’ll take care of this.” Vod reached behind his back and tugged the cannon out of its chained holster.

Vod brought the cannon around front, and began flipping dials and switches on the top and sides of it.
“Hold on just a second!” Dgrasda started shouting at Vod again. “What was it you were just saying about us all working together, against a huge number of enemies?!”
“I just didn’t think YOU would be able to take care of them by yourself.” Vod chuckled. “Sorry if I’m an ass by saying this, but I have way more experience in long ranged combat, so I’m able to pick off enemies from afar.” There was a pause, then Vod continued in a serious manner: “I do appreciate your bravery though. It will be most valuable in the future. Just be sure to hone your fighting capabilities.” Vod and Dgrasda nodded at each other as the Wereix’Banians charged at them, screaming their battle cries as they raised their lock-jaw grapple swords.

Without a moment’s pause, Vod disengaged his gaze from Dgrasda and now fixated on the Wereix’Banians.
“This’ll be rough guys. Take cover.” Vod cackled and he cocked the canon, loading a bullet - or whatever kind of ammunition Vod used - into the barrel. The cannon began making a humming noise, going from a low pitch to a higher one, as if it were charging up.
“Come and get it, Wereix’Ban scum!” Vod screeched, launching a single round from his massive gun. An orange beam of light shot out of the end, eradicating about 13 to 14 Wereix’Banians in one single blow. Everything from their kneecaps and above seemed to have disintegrated. Only six Wereix’Banians remained, and Vod’s gun was charging up again.

The Wereix’Banians were now running in the opposite direction. They had seen the chaotic power Vod’s gun possessed and began scrambling as far away as their legs would carry them, screaming all the way.
“Running, huh?” Vod said softly to himself, looking down at the cannon settings and adjusting a few buttons here and there. “…I don’t think so.”

Vod finished his configuration, and now pointed the gun towards the sky, but angled towards the fleeing opponents. This time, the round he fired glowed an eerie green color, which expanded in a linear fashion as it sailed through the air, towards the enemy. The green orb transformed into a dome-like contraption just before it hit, trapping the scared Wereix’Banians inside of an energy prison.
“Wow. You actually caught them.” Wasaii noted dryly.
“Of course!” Vod snapped. “I’ve done this kind of execution many times.”
“Execution…?” Jaki said, perplexed by his meaning. However, it was only a few seconds later when she saw the green dome shrinking.
“What the hell?” Argeston squinted his eyes, in order to see what exactly was going on.
“And here is the part when the cage tears them to ribbons.” Vod laughed, as he barbarically enjoyed the death trap that he had set out for the attempted escapers.
“Oh my God. This is just too cruel to watch.” Diy started sobbing as she heard the Wereix’Banians screaming out in pain, and calling for help.

Within seconds, the prison had clumped the enemies together in a tight spot, and began squeezing them to death like a boa constrictor, with the exception that the energy started to pass through their skin, leaving the most devastating of cuts. In the end, the Wereix’Banians were nothing more than a million scraps of twitching flesh, a few hundred meters away from Vod and his group.
“Well. That’s that.” Vod grinned under his mask. “Shall we go get Lexia, board our ships, and get out of he-” Before Vod could finish his proposal, he was harshly slapped by Cortanya.
“Don’t ever do that to a living being again. Do you understand me?” Cortanya’s face was a saddened, yet angered red.
“I’m afraid I don’t, actually.” Vod rubbed his face mask. Even though she had slapped him across his mask, the force still went through to his flesh.
“You know damn well what.” Cortanya now punched him in the gut, causing him to stagger backwards. Vod wasn’t facing so much pain, as he was surprise.
“Just what in the hell do you think you-” Vod began.
“Those Wereix’Banians!” She screamed at him. “You have no idea what it’s like to be encased in pain, like I do!” She gestured to the barbed wire that lined her body. “This feeling is torment, and I don’t think you really appreciate how horrible something like that is.” She now pointed over to what remained of the enemy.
“Silence you insolent girl!” Vod said in a raspy voice. “I may not know what it’s like to be entombed in wire or blades… but believe me, I know what it is like to experience excruciating pain!” Vod’s eye pieces began turning from their normal green, into a dark red. “Do not even think for a SECOND that I myself have not been tortured by the enemy before!”

Everybody was taken back by Vod’s statement, Cortanya included. Vod stood up straight, and began stomping towards a now frightened Cortanya.
“You’ve been… tortured before?” She squeaked like a mouse.
“Yes. Day in and day out for over 27 years.” Vod’s eye pieces turned into a misery-colored blue now. “…and the agency that I worked and currently work for didn’t see fit to send in somebody after me, so I was just left to rot. It was indeed, an awful experience.”
“I’m sorry Vod.” Iazly interjected. “I should have probably retrained Cortanya when she lashed out at you, but I didn’t think she would stop.”
“No. It’s fine.” Vod nodded at Iazly, then turned back to Cortanya. “However, I don’t think you quite understand my predicament yet, girl. I have a requirement for vengeance.” Vod’s eyes turned into a hazy yellow color. “I was captured by the plagues. The 3rd one, to be exact. He took me underground, and it was his doing, along with his Wereix’Ban assistance. True, they weren’t the only race involved with my torment, but I still hold a grudge against their foul species. THAT is why I do not hold back when I fight them, and THAT is why I was so damn cruel to them. They get no mercy or pity from me.” Vod turned his back on the group, then headed towards the ship.

As the rest of the group followed the grumbling, agitated Vod, it soon became comfortingly clear that the Wereix’Banians hadn’t done any real damage to the ship. Nothing from the outside appeared to be broken, touched, or altered in any way. The only thing they all worried about now was the looming threat of interior sabotage.
“What was that whole thing about, back there?” the Woman in the trench coat asked Cortanya, almost grabbing her by the shoulder, but retracting after she came across the barbed wire. “Wouldn’t it seem obvious that Vod was tortured?”
“Look, I didn’t know. Alright? I just spoke my mind without thinking things through. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing.” Cortanya pulled away put on a sour expression to meet up with the Woman’s questions.

Inside the ship, Lexia was unplugged from the ship, so there was no official way of telling if she had experienced any pain or trauma, due to the fact that she had no means of communicating outside of a machine host. However, she appeared to be intact overall, which was a wonderful sign.
“Lexia? Can you hear us?” Dgrasda whispered his question after he had completed plugging in different cords and activating Lexia’s communication relay.
“Yes. I can hear you all.” Lexia responded, lights flashing and gears turning inside as well as outside the container which she resides in.
“What happened with the Wereix’Banians? Did they hurt you? Do you know what they’re doing here or what they did to the ship?” Dgrasda started bombarding Lexia with all kinds of critical questions, after he had breathed a sigh of relief in knowing she was safe and sound.
“It took them awhile to find out I was in the ship and essentially acted as a knowledge gathering device for us all, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to overhear all of what they were discussing.” Her automatic, somewhat jarring voice replied through the speakers of the ship. “I will attempt to retrieve all information of their visit, and compile it into a disk for your viewing later.”
“Thank you very much Lexia.” Tyson thanked her for the information. “Now all we need to do is get this sucker into the air and direct it to the planet that houses the 2nd seal.” Tyson banged on a wall of the ship, as if it were some dog, ready to mush at command.

Vod paced around the ship while discussion went on about what path was best to take, and which actions they should all proceed to execute.
“No.” Vod stated solemnly, disagreeing with Tyson’s plan of attack. “We aren’t going to leave this planet quite yet.”
“What? Why the hell not?” Tyson became alert and agitated.
“Because, there may be a few survivors in hiding, like Diy. Even if there aren’t any people to give us intelligent, coherent statements, we can still get supplies from the nearby buildings and ships.” Vod spoke with a calm, philosophical type of voice, as if his plan was fool-proof and going with the grain of logic.
“But think about this. Isn’t it our job to contain the plagues?” Wasaii interjected into the conversation. “We should seriously just go after Alesticar this instant!”
“And what happens if we run out of supplies on our way there?” Vod approached her with great haste. “What will us ‘Heroes’ do then? I don’t think you realize that the 2nd seal is extraordinarily far away from the 1st seal. It was designed so that somebody would have to take a grand journey across space just to get from one to the other. This was, in turn, a way to help keep them all from escaping during the kind of scenario we presently find ourselves in.”
“Alright. Stop chewing me out already. I get it…” Wasaii winced from Vod’s exclamations, and put her hands over her ears.

Within a few moments, Vod ordered Lexia to take the ship into the air. There was a great deal of buzzing and whirling for the ship, and then a jolt from lift-off. The ship spun around to the left a few degrees, changing its course, and then blasted off to the requested target: Bezantarkask 4’s capital.

As the group flew closer and closer to the capital, pillars of smoke pleading towards the sky had become apparent on the horizon. Grim faces shot across every last person on the ship, whom all gazed upon the wake Alesticar had left. For he had transformed this once beautiful, thriving city, into a wasteland of destruction, chaos, and extinction. It was now apparent to those who held a doubt of the Plague’s power, were now taken aback by this display of tyranny and desolation.

Hovering over the ruined tops of buildings, Lexia found a suitable landing platform to touch the ship down on. After the spacecraft had been landed on a sturdy surface of an already flattened building, Lexia detached the ship’s stairway, planting it on the platform surface, and allowing the group access to the planet once again.

Dgrasda decided to stay by Lexia’s side, and this time around, every member of the group took a communication device from the ship, in case anybody became separated or required assistance.
“Are we looking for something in particular, besides the obvious things like food and liquids?” Ensagar questioned Vod, since it was apparent to everybody that the famous assassin was in charge of planning and giving orders to the group as a whole.
“Yes. Look for anything that could be used for fuel, essential ship parts, scraps of metal, weapons, clothing, and basically anything else that we can use in any way, shape, or form.” Vod said as he planted his feet on the landing platform, shouldering his cannon. Everybody decided that it would be in the best interest to break off into teams of two to three, in order to cover ground faster.

While other groups spread out and began raiding nearby stores and buildings for supplies, Cortanya and Tyson paired up and went off to investigate a smoldering mechanic’s shop.
“Isn’t this funny?” Tyson said as his feet sifted through hundreds of scattered nuts and bolts, which he proceeded to scoop into an empty pouch he had taken along for the scavenger hunt. “I doubt that either of us really likes machines very much, and yet we’re the one’s who are here, instead of those crazy rodents or whatever. I forget what their names are…”
“Rant and Jabble.” Cortanya said, not amused by Tyson’s idea of small talk.
“Well even so, don’t you find this rather ironic?” Tyson started lightly laughed, but soon stopped after he saw he was getting nowhere with Cortanya.

There was a prolonged silence between Cortanya and Tyson. They both idly picked up wrenches, screws, bolts, hammers, metal bits, and other odds and ends. The only noise that was accompanying them was the rattling of chains, dangling from the ceiling, and blowing with every gust of wind that swept through the greasy shop.
“So. How did you end up getting on board with this whole mess.” Cortanya questioned Tyson without looking at him, but phrased her voice to make it sound more like a statement.
“… Well, I’m afraid I was part of the original task force that tried to subdue Alesticar the moment he escaped.” Tyson said after a small period of silence.
“You mean that you saw him? What happened to you and your team?” Cortanya’s eyes lit up and she became excited to come across somebody who had survived a plague before.
“I didn’t see very much of him, other than a shadowy figure off in the distance.” Tyson scratched his head and backed away a little, intimidated by the reclusive girls’ new found interest in him.
“So you just saw some guy on the horizon? That’s it?” Cortanya sighed, her expression melting back away into its neutrality.
“No. I didn’t mean it like that. What I meant was that I didn’t exactly get a look at his face. I’m sure you remember about the whole ‘He who stares into Alesticar’s face looses their mind’ thing, right?” Tyson asked, stepping back forward, trying to grasp her attention again.
“Yeah. So you saw him overall, with the exception of his face?” Cortanya turned towards him, intrigued once more.
“You bet I did.” Tyson puffed himself up. “Alesticar just about killed me with that huge staff of his. He was riding on his horse and all, but I managed to evade him and the sick plans he had in store for me and my team.”
“Alesticar has a horse?” Cortanya’s eyes widened with fear.
“He does.” Tyson confirmed her fears. “He rides a massive, undead, skeletal horse. He often times uses it for travel and for catching up to his prey. Don’t worry though, he wasn’t able to get me.” He winked at her.
“Well good thing I suppose. Otherwise who knows what kind of creep I’d have been paired up with.” Cortanya smiled. “I’d hate to have been assigned with a crazed lunatic like Vod or Rant and Jabble.”
“I suppose you could just say that’s what I’m here for then.” Tyson smiled back at her.
“Well, we should finish picking up any spare parts we can carry and head back to the ship.” Cortanya flashed Tyson one last smile before she walked off to another part of metal shop.

As Cortanya went off to her own corner, Tyson started humming a tune softly to himself, smiling as he picked up some more helpful tools. Shoving them all into his pockets, he was about to run after Cortanya again when he heard a rustling sound off to his right. The sound continued, so Tyson pulled out his gun and slowly advanced to the right hand side of the shop.

With a sudden crash, a nearby pile of rumble exploded with movement, exposing a Wereix’Banian in hiding, and sending debris hurtling towards Tyson.
“Cortanya! Help!” Tyson yelled to the other side of the shop as a flying piece of pipe knocked his gun out of his hand. The Wereix’Ban soldier leapt towards Tyson, knocking him down on his back.
“Intruders must dieeee.” The grotesque being snarled. Bits of saliva and mucus dribbled onto Tyson from it’s under-bite of a jaw. Tyson squirmed and struggled, but the Wereix’Ban had already pinned his arms and legs down, and was now pulling out a knife from one of its back pockets.

There was a sudden slash. For a second, Tyson believed he’d been slashed by the cruel creature on top of him, but once he opened up his wincing eyes, he saw a red line spanning up and down the entire monster. The line thickened slowly, and the attacker split apart, creating two halves of a Wereix’Banian soldier.
“Oh God! What the hell?!” Tyson exclaimed, quickly sliding away from the twitching mass of slimy flesh. Black-red blood oozed out into a vast puddle. It was only a few seconds after when he saw a long strand of barbed wire lying next to the body.

With one quick jerk of the arm, the barbed wire retracted back to its rightful master; Cortanya, whom was standing a few dozen feet away from both Tyson, as well as the corpse.
“Well then. Should we get a move on then?” Cortanya winked at the still sitting, shell-shocked Tyson.
“Just hold on a moment!” Tyson scrambled to his feet and jogged after Cortanya. “I thought I heard you say that the wire of yours was a curse. Yet you can control it?” He blinked in disbelief.
“Some curses are made that way.” Cortanya’s face grew sadder as she walked. “It’s the sort of thing that I’m ashamed to live with. The kind of thing that haunts people’s dreams.”
“How did you get it? Could you please possibly tell me?” Tyson wanted to grab her shoulder and stop her from walking further, but he feared he would sever his hand if he did so.
“Let’s just say that sometimes the greatest loves of you life can become the greatest betrayals.” Cortanya said as she paused her stride to look at him. Tyson only noticed it for a second, but he realized that there was a trace of tears in those ice cold eyes of hers. Emotions frozen and locked away, effectively giving Cortanya the image of an unfeeling, heartless queen.
“Come.” She said, breaking his train of thought. “Vod and the others will be expecting us to report back soon.

---

Everybody had come back with a boat load of junk. The junk in itself was technically worthless in its current state, but were all very useful ingredients to enhanced weapons, new inventions, and replaceable parts. The things that were not junk in their current form were perishable items, like food and liquids.
“Did anybody encounter any problems while they were out?” Vod asked everybody and anybody as they all took their bounty aboard the ship.
“We ran into a couple of stray Wereix’Banian soldiers, left over from Alesticar’s army.” Argeston and Jaki both reported back.
“Hey, that was the same with us. We got startled by a lone soldier as well.” Tyson interrupted. “He was hiding under a bunch of rubble, and sprung out at us when we got close.”
“The ones we came across were suspended from the ceiling by chains and crude ropes.” Jaki said. “They detached on top of us while we were gathering food for the ship.”
“Well at least the good thing is that we’re all unscathed by our encounters.” Vod commented dryly. “Are we ready to head off to the 2nd seal now? It’s a considerably long flight from here.”
“Yes.” Everybody groaned, glad that they were all able to finally get off of this void filled planet.

Packing was a bit hard to do, considering that there were so many crates that could be filled with things. Several of the ships that the group had taken yielded a cargo bay, so a lot of large objects were stored in those. As for small things like tools, nuts, bolts, and screws; they were all put into cubby holes where they could be easily accessed. If a situation arose where a part of the ship required a quick fix, the person closest to the pockets and small storage spaces would be able to make a dash for them and collect the necessary supplies.

As for the perishables, everything was stored away into the freezing units and refrigerated cabinets, in order to preserve everything for the long road. Anything that wasn’t wrapped and / or labeled was tossed out of the ship. Expired food was a very deadly thing to have in one’s midst, so everybody agreed that the maggots and decomposers that survived the slaughter on Bezantarkask 4 would be provided with a smorgasbord of delectable treats and goodies to eat away.

---

Everyone on board all the ships took a heavy sigh of relief. The packing and stowing away of items was complete, and now the mission could begin again.
“Is everybody strapped in?” Lexia and the pilots of all the other ships inquired.
“Yes.” All the passengers answered.
“Then prepare for lifto-” The pilots stated, but were interrupted with a jolt. The ships were all hit with something, but nobody could quite put their finger on what it was.

It was a bad situation. After the initial jolt, the ships weren’t able to fly past a certain point, as if being held back by some kind of force. Pretty soon, a red light on each of the pilot control panels turned on, and a warning sound started blaring.
“This is Lexia. We have a serious problem. I’m afraid to tell you all that we’ve been ensnared by a classical Wereix’Ban harpoon trap.” Lexia announced over all intercom channels, informing the neighboring ships.

Outside the ships, swarms of Wereix’Banian soldiers surrounded the ship. Several of them held powerful harpoon guns in their hands, which had all already been fired, piercing the sides of Lexia’s ship, as well as all the others.
“We’ve got you now. Heroic scum.” One of the Wereix’Ban commanders murmured to himself, his eyes narrowing on his prey.

No use. No matter what Lexia or the other pilots tried, the harpoons were lodged into the side of the hull for good. No matter what strategy or maneuvers they tried, the wires wouldn’t snap, and the grapples wouldn’t break off of the hull.
“Somebody is going to have to go outside!” Jaki - the pilot of another ship - almost screamed through the communications relay. Her irrational tone of voice caused all listeners to grimace for a second or two, then recollect their thoughts.
“I’ll go.” Ensagar said over the telecom.
“You can’t be serious. Tell me you’re joking.” Kazrock cackled. “What could you possibly do to stop them? I mean really… if anything, I’ll just brew up a few potions I used in my doctoring profession. I’ll add a few ingredients here and there, and I’ll have a dozen high-powered explosives. We could just blast the enemy away.
“That would take too much time.” Ensagar dismissed Kazrock’s proposal. “I have magical powers, in case you don’t recall. I have lots of experience with destructive magic and teleportation. I’ll just shoot myself outside, cause some carnage, and jump back into the ship in no time at all.”
“Ensagar has a point here, Kazrock.” Argeston boomed. “It is probably in all of our best interests to solve this problem quickly. Ensagar should go.”

Vod took a heavy sigh. Like a mentor with a fledgling student, Vod didn’t hold much confidence in Ensagar’s abilities. To him, Ensagar was a cheap, 2-bit magic act with no real firepower behind it all. However, in accordance with popular sovereignty, he approved for him to go, even if he didn’t want him to.
“I won’t let you guys down.” Ensagar gave everybody the ‘Thumbs up’, and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

---

Bang! Without a second’s pause, Ensagar appeared on the surface of Bezantarkask 4, accompanied by a large explosion of smoke.
“Get him!” The Wereix’Banian commander shrieked, drawing out his sword and pointing at the enemy.
“…If you can, that is.” Ensagar whispered softly, turning the commanders’ order into a mockery.

Ten soldiers came at him at once, all with their assorted weapons ready for skewering; sword, grappler, trident, kopsi, spear, majow, mace, flail, pemim, and other tools for destruction. With a flick of the hand, Ensagar worked his magic, and began to melt their weapons, painfully fusing the metal to their hands.

Screams filled the air as the Wereix’Banians cried out ‘My hands! My hands!’. Ensagar merely rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers, causing the ground to liquefy beneath their feet, throwing them underground, and solidifying once again. It was a very effective way of burying somebody alive, and Ensagar knew how to do this trick well.
“That’s it!” The commander snorted like a pig. He cracked his knuckles and neck. “Now you die, you piece of shit!”
“Perhaps I will die, but certainly not today.” Ensagar smiled wickedly at the commander. “Tell me something, you rotting sack of flesh. How much do you know about the limit of cell expansion?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” The commander shouted at him, spittle flying out of his rabid mouth.
“I’m talking about…” Ensagar narrowed his eyes. “Bodily explosions.”

Ensagar snapped his fingers again, then clamped them into a fist. In an instance, the Wereix’Banian commander doubled over in pain.
“Arrrgh!” He howled in agony. “I swear… I’m going to kill you!” He reached out towards Ensagar in jolts, sliding across the ground in tremors.
“I think not, because pretty soon, you’ll be nothing more than a puddle of tissue.” Ensagar unclenched his fist. The commander began to slowly expand, causing his skin to tear and rip. After growing exponentially for a second or two, Ensagar slammed his fists together, causing the commander to violently explode, sending bit and pieces flying over 50 feet away, and reducing him to mush.

Now that the commander had been taken care of, the rest of the soldiers started fleeing in terror, leaving their grapple guns behind. Never-the-less, Ensagar twiddled his fingers a few times, sending magic off to attack the harpoon chains and ropes, and thus snapping them from their anchors in the ship. All that needed to be done now was get rid of the harpoons stuck within the hull themselves.

Knowing that it’s best to leave a knife in flesh to plug the flow of blood, Ensagar figured the same principal applied with a harpoon and a ship. The harpoon could have ruptured the fuel tanks, for all he knew. He’d only be dealing further damage by trying to pull them out by means of magic. Instead, Ensagar figured his task was completed. The ships were free to fly, the enemies were gone, and he received the satisfaction of detonating one of Alesticar’s soldiers.

In another flash, Ensagar was back on board, smoke and all.
“That’s it? We’re free?” Dgrasda blinked stupidly.
“You bet we are. All the ships are free to head into space, and I destroyed most of the enemies.”
“That’s amazing! You were barely gone two minutes!” Dgrasda exclaimed.
“True, but what did he mean by ‘most’ of the enemies?” Vod agreed with Dgrasda on the part about speed, but seemed to be quite displeased that not all the enemies had been destroyed.
“So you mean to tell me you let SEVERAL of those bastards get away from you?” Vod grabbed Ensagar by the collar and slammed him against the wall, all while his lenses became a burning red color.
“I’m afraid I did. Probably because I’m not a cold, heartless murderer like you are.” Ensagar spat on Vod’s mask.

Vod threw Ensagar across the room, but didn’t pursue his target. Instead, he simply wiped the spit from his mask.
“Forget it. You’re not worth my time, you spineless pansy magician.” Vod walked off in a different direction, heading for a stairway that led down towards the food storage to get something to eat. He proclaimed his intentions of eating every once and awhile, but nobody was quite sure how he managed with the mask. Nobody saw him, nobody questioned him, and nobody cared to know.

Finally, after much ado, Lexia and the other pilots managed to lift up the landing gears, take the ships out of their defenseless positions, and fly off into space. Once they broke past the atmosphere, they suspended in orbit for the time being, while Lexia calculated the best course to take.
“Vod.” Lexia called the assassin over the intercom.
“Yeah. Go ahead Lexia. What do you want?” Vod questioned back as he continued looking around in the cupboards for food.
“I need the name of the planet and coordinates for the 2nd seal. Do you know them off hand, or do we need to call the King and have him look it up for us?” Lexia, despite being part brain and part machine, was now feeling a great deal of impatience with running around from planet to planet, calculating equations, and hunting the deadliest forces in the entire universe.
“Don’t be silly. Of course I know what they are.” Vod said, laughing through his mechanical voice. “The planet is Krishnii. The coordinates are 47.5-38.2-19.7-37.5-DBO.” Vod listed off the coordinates from memory without any problem at all, as if they were engrained in his mind.

After a long pause, a few clicks, buzzes, and other arranged noises, Lexia confirmed that the course was set, and that they were on their way to Krishnii. Jaki and the other pilots, however, didn’t hear Vod’s exact coordinates over the telecom, and simply set their ship to follow Lexia’s. Orbit was broken, and the ships began the long journey to the lonely planet of Krishnii, yet another desolate planet like Bezantarkask 4, full of wonder and awe, but chaos and ruin as well.

---

Still looking for the smoke stack which Selphir had picked up on by smell earlier, both he and Alesticar stopped in their tracks when they heard the all too familiar telecommunications device go off in Selphir’s pocket. Alesticar looked at Selphir with a hateful glare.
“You know how much I hate the sound of that thing.” Alesticar sneered. “Either answer it or I’ll discard of it myself.”
“Fine. I’ll just answer it, since it’s the only link we have to our intelligence center.” Selphir just blindly complied to the order.

Alesticar walked off a few paces while Selphir picked up the communications device and started to have a conversation with one of the Wereix’Banian agents.
“Now, where oh where could you be, little Ixfreed…” Alesticar squinted his hellishly orange eyes, looking across the boundless horizon for any sign of the secondary seal that he so desperately wished to find. Not finding anything immediately, he started to pace around in frustration, hoping that walking back and forth might stimulate some sort of memory or inspiration as to where his fellow plague may be locked away.

In the mean time, Selphir was arguing with the agent on the communications relay, completely disbelieving what he was being told from the other end.
“You’re sure? Positive?” Selphir asked unenthusiastically, grimly waiting for the reply which he knew he didn’t want to hear.
“Yes. We’re certain they’ve left. According to the informants we left, they weren’t able to keep them there for very long.” The Wereix’Banian on the other end confirmed Selphir’s worries.
“Very well then.” Selphir sighed. “Thank you for the update. We’ll try to leave this place as soon as we free Ixfreed. Thanks again.” Selphir said his good-bye’s, then slammed his fingers on the ‘End Transmission’ button.

Stomping furiously over to Alesticar, Selphir tapped the first plague on the shoulder, breaking his concentration on pacing as well as gazing on the horizons.
“What is it now?” Alesticar moaned in his usual, strangely high tone of voice.
“It’s the group of heroes that think they’re going to stop us from tearing up the universe.” Selphir stated. “The Wereix’Banian soldiers we planted there were – unfortunately – not able to keep them there for very long.” Even though Selphir was explaining himself to Alesticar, his master was looking off in the distance again.
“Are you even listening to me, sire?!” Selphir yelled into Alesticar’s ear.
“Pardon me.” Alesticar grinned even more. “It’s just that I see a smoke stack over that way.” His finger pointed off in front of him. “Let’s resume walking shall we?” He started walking off, having Selphir follow close behind.

“Besides, Selphir… Don’t worry about that pesky group.” He cackled as he led the way. “After I ordered a small group of soldiers to give all their engines a little gift, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t get very far…”


To Be Continued…