Scout Of Sorrow
The 13 Royal Plagues Series, Book 1

Chapter 7: “Crash Down To Lirrt”

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“…It is without a doubt, something that no man, woman, or child can live with. Running away in the face of tyranny and slaughter is not the particular sort of thing I could conceive myself doing. Ever. However, regardless of what my instinctive senses of shameless honor may tell me, I will never be a match for a deity like Alesticar Manjara and his horrific horse, Obsadrica. They are the primary coming of the plagues. A kind which heralds merely the beginning of the apocalypse, instead of the full apocalypse itself. He is the rotting scout. Alesticar is a soulless man that only guides the rest of the plagues. He is by no means the one who is able to invoke the most damage. Yet his strength and power is so great… How is it that a man of logic such as myself finds it impossible for such ‘Royal Plagues’ to exist? I have witnessed the first-hand destruction myself. I have seen beings been broken in half, split apart, and ravaged in mind, body, and soul, regardless of gender, age, or species. I do not believe that I can take much more of this, even though I know full well in my heart that I must document these terrible and tragic events, regardless of cost…”


-Excerpt from “Indaricas’ Handbook To The Apocalypse, Chapter 1, Verse 7

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The ride so far was going quite smoothly. Vod had already fallen asleep in one of the small living quarters, and everybody else were conversing amongst each other about any battles or obstacles to come.
“So how hard do you think this guy is going to be to take down this ‘Alesticar’ guy?” Wasaii sat down on a nearby wall-seat, spreading herself out and relaxing against the metallic wall. Since the group was split across several ships, they all had a unanimous agreement to all converse over the same frequencies and waves at all times, no matter what.
“I doubt that he’ll be very difficult.” Fabrak transmitted from a different ship. “He just sounds like an over-glorified commander with some stupid magic trick that can induce insanity. I have a feeling that I’ll be able to make short work of him with my displacement sword.”
“Don’t be so cocky, mister negotiator.” Mazalic cut in sharply. “My family died at the hands of this ‘over-glorified commander’. He’s more powerful than you think he is.”
“Tsk.” Fabrak choked back his content attitude about the subject. “It sounds to me like your family were simply too weak and unable to defend themselves. Even peasants can’t do much in the face of a person with a weapon.”
“You son of a…” Mazalic wanted to reach through the communications device and strangle Fabrak himself. “…You know what? I’m not even going to bother. I’ll just let Alesticar correct you himself.” Mazalic slouched against a wall, pouting at his verbal loss.

Down below the main level, Vod continued to rest peacefully, despite the bickering and arguments above him. It was only after he heard a buzzing transmission when he woke from his graceful slumber.
“Pardon me, Vod. I didn’t mean to wake you.” It was Lexia on the transmission.
“No. Go ahead. What is it?” Vod shook his head in an attempt to get himself at peak awareness.
“Back on Bezantarkask 4 you asked me to compile surveillance files. Do you remember?” Lexia asked in a concerned tone, as if she didn’t know whether Vod was coherent or not.
“No. I remember. That’s when the Wereix’Banians infiltrated our ship while we were off searching the planet.” Vod nodded his head. “Send the disk down to me if you would, please.”
“In transit…” Lexia obeyed.

After a few seconds, a small disk came out of an inter-ship transportation system, normally used to send small documents or objects back and forth through ships large in scale. It wasn’t long before Vod snatched it up and stuck it into a hologram reader.
“Alright. Let’s see if you mongrels did anything…” Vod mumbled as the transmission started up.

~~~

The thumping of heavy, metallic boots echoed through-out the ship. Wereix’Banian soldiers and lieutenants marched around the rooms as if they owned it all, or were taking it over in the name of their unholy God.
“Search it all for crew members and passengers!” one of them bellowed out an order. The rest of the soldiers shambled about like the mindless creatures of undeath that they were, obeying their superior without question, thought, or emotion. These shells of beings scattered around the entire ship, sniffing the air with their putrid noses, smelling for anything that may be alive.

Within no time, the soldiers began digging through cabinets and storage places. The screamed and howled as their searches came up with nothing to destroy.
“Sir! There’s nobody on board this ship!” A lower ranked grunt bellowed with his head still looking through some closets and crawlspaces.
“Now why would they just leave their ships for the taking?” the commander shook with rage. “Never before have I had an enemy do such a foolish thing.”

Soon after, another voice came from the outside.
“Sir, there’s nobody on any of the other nearby ships either!” A soldier reported to his superior.
“Fine then. We’ll just have to install the devices as Alesticar ordered us to. After you’re done with that, head off towards the capital. There may still be survivors there.”
“Yes sir!” The grunts acknowledged in unison.

Time passed as time does. Occasionally one of the grunts would run in and out of the ship, collect a few things, make some noise, and dart back outside. From what was apparent though, most of the disturbance was coming from the outside, underneath and behind the ship.
“The devices have been planted in all the ships sir.” A soldier said after minutes had passed by.
“Wonderful.” The commander cackled with glee. “Just do one more sweep of the ships for supplies and crew members.”

Scampering. The soldiers were all moving around, checking rooms at a single glance and jumping back out; eager to search everywhere else.
“Sir, we may have something here.” There was a large pause from the commander.
“What is it, soldier?” He finally responded to his underlings comment.
“It’s some sort of… pilot thing. It’s like a brain that controls the ship.” The grunt found it hard to explain the finding to his superior.
“Just deactivate it. We have much bigger fish to fry than some scrawny, useless brain.” The Wereix’Banian commander issued his final command.
“Sir!” the soldier replied.

~~~

Vod sat there in his chair, motionless. The silence was also shared by Lexia, who had not seen the compiled hologram files that she pulled from her idle memory.
“…You were not… conscious when this happened?” Vod finally broke the tension, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.
“No. Dgrasda has set me on a sleep mode to conserve energy. However, my unconscious functions continued to collaborate and compile surveillance data.” Lexia informed Vod of the situation she was in.
“We need to find a planet to land on.” Vod said, frantically this time. He shot up from his chair and started pacing around.
“What? You mean go back to Bezantarkask 4?” Lexia asked, perplexed.
“No. I mean I want you to find the nearest planet we can go to. We can’t afford to go backwards… we must press forward towards Krishnii.” Vod began stammering, now that he sensed very real danger.

There was a moment’s pause while Lexia was accessing the ship’s database of nearby planets to land upon.
“There’s a nearby sphere construct we can go to. It’s well populated and loaded down with assorted supplies, along with ship repairs, and just about anything else we could ever possibly need.” Lexia reported after she had completely run her planetary scan of the nearby quadrants.
“Sphere construct? You mean a machine planet?” Vod stood still, waiting for a response.
“That would be affirmative. It isn’t very far from our location at all.” Lexia replied, still looking at statistics.
“Good. Could you head for that planet please? Tell the others to head there to.” Vod ordered in a very rushed fashion, looking around for stairs to take him to the upper levels of the ship.
“Is there something wrong, sir?” Lexia was still perplexed from Vod’s orders. Even though she was a living brain, she was not the kind to think things through in-depth, and merely followed crystal clear orders and actions.
“I think there’s a bomb attached to each of our engines.” Vod said almost inaudibly, not wanting to strike a panic amongst the ships, even though he was certain there would be anyways.
“A bomb?!” Lexia got as close as she ever had to shouting. “What makes you think such a thing would be on our ships?”
“You heard the transmission, didn’t you?” Vod questioned impatiently.
“Well yes, but…” Lexia began a tangent of thought.
“Then I’m sure you heard the whole part about them planting devices in our ships, correct?” Vod interrupted.
“Correct, but I simply speculated that it would be something more along the lines of homing devices.” Lexia retorted.
“I highly doubt it.” Vod shook his head. “Wereix’Banian squads never use intelligence gathering devices. They always take the most destructive approach to any and all dilemmas, problems, and tactics. They planted bombs on our ships, I know they did.” Vod took a deep breath, trying to recollect his thoughts to take the next step. “That’s why I’m ordering you to fly us to the construct. We could detonate at any time.”
“Affirmative.” Lexia noted grimly. “Changing our current course to the mechanical construct known as: ‘Lirrt’.” Lexia announced.
“Excellent. Alert the others of our intentions.

---

The memo on what Vod had deduced based on the hologram report was met with a great deal of terror.
“What?! We’re all carrying bombs?!” Jaki clutched tightly to her ship’s controls. “W-w-when are they supposed to go off?” Her hands started shaking.
“None of us are sure.” Lexia neutrally spoke through the transmission panel. “All I know is that we’re changing our course to the nearby planet of Lirrt in order to solve the problem as quickly as we can.”

Without a moments pause, Jaki and the pilots of the other ships began to follow Lexia to the shifting, gray planet. They were still quite some ways off from reaching the giant planet of gears and cogs, but progress was being made none-the-less. It only took a matter of minutes before their ships reached the planet’s orbit.

There was a loud rumbling from all the ships, and the shaking that was experienced by all the passengers made it quite clear that the bombs had gone off.
“Where were the bombs planted?!” Jaki shouted her question into the broadcasting transmission screen, her voice desperately attempting to overshadow the ship’s warning sirens.
“They went off in the engine rooms. I’m sure of it.” Vod said as he held on to a nearby wall while the rumbling continued.
“I’m afraid Vod is right in his speculation.” Lexia informed the whole group. “I’m reading several hull ruptures coming from the engine interior and exterior. The rooms that house all of our engines are programmed to seal off from the rest of the ship, so there’s no need to worry about lack of oxygen. However, we’re sitting ducks without proper propulsion systems. I’m please to say though that we’ve traveled just far enough that we can manage a crash landing on the planet.
“You want us to crash into a giant, rotating, metal planet?” Argeston boomed into the transmission screen in disbelief.
“It’s either that or sit in orbit and rot away after we deplete our supplies.” Lexia noted the ultimatum they all faced.
“Alright. Let’s crash these babies!” Rant and Jabble giggled.

The ride became rough very quickly. As if the fire emanating from the engines behind the ships wasn’t enough, the friction of the atmosphere began to pick up, creating plasma trails all around. The speed of the ships became devastatingly high, and the metallic ground began zooming closer and closer to the spaceships.
“We have to increase resistance!” Fabrak stammered as the bones in his body rattled. The entire ship felt to everybody as if it was going to tear apart at any instance, even those they were guaranteed to hold up by word of the King himself.
“Initiating anti-gravity thrusters, wind conditioners, and atmosphere shields.” Lexia reported, using her brain to activate all the functions she could that may help to soften the crash landing.

Jaki and the other pilots followed Lexia’s lead. With several crash safety features activated, the rate at which the ships were descending was reduced by at least 55%. Many passengers heaved sighs of relief. They were certain that the crash would be painful, but at least now it wasn’t going to be critically fatal.
“Is there anything else we can do in order to slow our fall?” Mazalic worriedly said. “It still looks like we’re dropping in fast.
“I’m afraid not.” Lexia replied with much dismay. “We’re descending at the slowest we can without using our engines. If we had the ability to use our engines, we’d fall slower than a feather. Unfortunately, since the bombs all went off, we’re stuck with the usual anti-gravity mechanisms and crash resistance features.”
“Let us hope the ground is fairly soft then.” Wasaii blandly stated.

In the last few seconds of their descent, everybody on board the ships braced themselves for the crash. Systematically, one ship crashed after another. Each party bounced and skidded across the metallic surface of the planet for a while, and eventually came to a halt. Since they had all come into the planet at a specific degree, they managed to direct most of the damage to the underside of the ship, without plummeting headfirst down to certain doom.

For the most part, almost everybody remained uninjured. The spot they crashed at was relatively open, save for a few transmitter beacons here and there. The ships that the group were all flying had been fortified with extra thick walls, magno-glass, and were all around resistant to just about any type of element found in the universe. However, not only had bombs blown out the back of the ship and the engines, but some of the transmitter poles had been knocked through the main magno-glass screen on the front of the ship, and found its way straight through Vod’s lower-left torso.
“Vod!” Dgrasda exclaimed, shocked by the pole sticking out of him.
“Don’t worry about it.” They all heard him cough is a raspy fashion. “I’ve had to endure much worse in my lifetime.” He grabbed the pole and slowly pulled it out, tossing it back outside from whence it came.
“Vod, what about the hole that it made?” Dgrasda questioned as he bent down to look at the damage the transmission pole had left over.
“Don’t worry. I have all the organic parts of my body hooked up to a special chemical.” Vod answered proudly. “It will promptly regenerate any minor wound – much like this one – in a matter of an hour or so. My blood will clot in a matter of a handful of minutes.” He gave everybody the thumbs up signal to show he was alright and that he was in no horrific danger.

After everybody had been checked out and assured their fellow crewmembers that they weren’t severely hurt, the group exited their ships and stepped onto the surface of the planet; their feet making a hallow clap against metal. Even though everybody clarified that they weren’t injured, most people had indeed suffered from scrapes, bruises, bumps, and cuts. Some took short paces away from the ships and back again in an attempt to walk off or dull some of the collision pain.
“Well, now what do we do.” Wasaii made a visor with her hand, allowing for her eyes to see off into the distance without the glaring sun above.
“Civilization is a few miles from here.” Iazly said, pressing a few buttons on her wrist navigator. “Some people probably saw our ships crash, but we should send somebody into town, just in case they didn’t.”
“I’ll go.” Kazrock volunteered. “My hovering platform can probably travel much faster than any of you walking or running, and I won’t get tired. Not only that, but I’m also good with talking to people. I’ll be able to bring somebody back to take care of our ships, I can promise you that.

With blank expressions and mannequin arms, the heroes waves Kazrock good-bye as he floated off towards the city. There was nothing much left to do but wait for help to arrive.
“I certainly hope that little twerp doesn’t get lost.” Ensagar mumbled to himself, even though the rest of the group thought the same exact thing.
“I’m sure we don’t need to worry.” Argeston boomed out a lie which even he didn’t find convincing. “We’ll just have to kill some time while he’s going to help.”

Before long, cards and gambling pieces were introduced to distract everyone from the crashed ships. Ensagar, of course, supplied all the cards, while Wasaii had a boat load of gambling coins with her personal belongings. There weren’t any actual wagers or anything, since there would be no point in the whole group passing along money to one another, just to have it all be spent equally in the end. It would be much like giving money to oneself.
“I bet 10, 82, and 41.” Dgrasda shuffled different colored coins forward.
“Wait just a second.” Jaki interrupted the betting phase. “What exactly are we playing again?”
“We’re playing Jaok.” Vod spoke impatiently as he shuffled around his 11-card hand. “I assume you know the basic rules?”
“Yeah, I’m played this game several times before. I’m not some sort of idiot.” Jaki said, flustered that Vod was so rude to her.
“Fine then.” Vod laughed as he laid down his hand. “I have Nazbin.” He continued cackling as he raked in the pot of chips.
“Damn it! I hate you Vod!” Tyson threw his hand down in anger. “How are you so damn good at this game?!”
“Years of practice, my friend.” Vod retorted proudly. “Perhaps if you hadn’t played out so many cards, you might get better, instead of simply throwing your best out there.” Vod laughed again.
“Oh screw you.” Tyson slumped back down on the metal floor.

---

After dozens of rounds of Jaok, Kazrock was spotted on the horizon, with a very large pick-up ship flying behind him. Nay, it was more of a cruiser to be precise. It was a gigantic mass of metal, which would be able to pick up over 20 times the amount of ships they had.
“Jesus. Looks like he came back with major assistance.” Ensagar pointed out the obvious ship in the sky as he packed up his cards. Wasaii did the same with her gambling chips.

The ship hovered noisily overhead as Kazrock gave his equivalent of a smile to the rest of his comrades, due to the fact that he had no real mouth to speak of.
“I told you I would bring help along.” He chuckled admirably.
“Yeah, but what’s up with the big ass ship?” Cortanya slowly looked up, being careful of the barbed wire around her neck.
“Well, I told them that we had at least 3 ships for pick-up, and then immediately signed me off for a cruiser.”

Soon after, dozens of immensely thick chains dropped down from the cruiser. After that, handfuls of robotic workers dropped down from the open cargo bay on the bottom of the ship. They hurriedly scampered around, attaching the chains around the ships. Once everything had been attached and secured, a loud cranking noise overshadowed the dirge of the engines. The multitude of ships were hoisted up into the cruiser, and loaded into the cargo bay.

Before anybody could object, or ask how they themselves were going to get into town, a subtle platform shot down from the cruiser. The android workers directed the group onto the platform through motions and signals. The robots knocked on the platform three times after everybody got onto it. Everybody felt a harsh jerk at the platform shot back up into the cruiser at high speeds, soon reaching the open cargo bay.

With a gigantic slam, the massive cargo doors slammed shut beneath them. It was now only a matter of time before they reached the nearby city and proceed to have their ship engines fixed.
“Did you find out how much repairing our ships was going to cost, Kazrock?” the Woman in the trench coat asked the small doctor.
“They didn’t say. I simply asked them for a pick-up, and they prepared a cruiser before I could discuss it with them further.”
“Oh great. So we’re basically going to be ripped off, all the way!” Rant and Jabble exclaimed.
“Not necessarily.” Jaki said in defense of the towers and mechanics. “If they’re so nice to help us without hesitation, perhaps they’ll give us a discount.”
“Yes necessarily.” Wasaii disagreed. “They make you think like you’re in debt to them for picking you up, and then THAT’S where they get you. You end up paying out your ass for anything… Even if it’s just a plasma change.”
“However, this is no simple plasma change.” Dgrasda shook his head. “Our engines were totaled.”
“Wasn’t the whole purpose of brining HER along to fix things like this in the first place?” Cortanya pointed a finger at Jaki. “She’s a mechanic after all!”
“This isn’t something I can just fix overnight!” Jaki shouted at Cortanya. “If I had the parts and the time, I probably could… but even then…!”
“Quiet, all of you.” Vod ordered. “It doesn’t matter what this patch up job will cost. The King will transmit currency to us if needed. Besides, I doubt Jaki could fix our engines with the kind of scraps we picked up from Bezantarkask 4 anyways. Let’s just leave our ships in the hands of the company that was kind enough to listen to Kazrock and pick us all up, alright?” Everybody reluctantly shook their heads.
“It looks like we’re going to be here for some time then…” Dgrasda sighed as he patted the offline Lexia in his hands.

---

The pace had quickened. Selphir was trying desperately to keep up with Alesticar’s immense stride.
“Sir, could you please possibly slow down?” Selphir huffed as he shuffled his legs. Alesticar whipped around and landed a punch right into Selphir’s stomach.
“You have the damned power of shadows!” Alesticar shrieked as Selphir doubled over in a coughing fit. “If you can’t naturally keep up with me, using the assistance of your shadows to quicken your walking speed! I’m trying to unleash my brethren as quickly as I can muster. Since I left Obsadrica back at the camp, I have to travel by foot. I’m not pleased by this, but it will have to do. Have I made myself clear?” He took a deep breath after his outburst.
“Perfectly, sir.” Selphir coughed one last time.

The campsite that was home to the ever beckoning smokestack had now become a visible shape on the horizon. Alesticar giggled at he fantasized all the terrible things he was going to do to the tranquil and content little village.
“Prepare to either summon your familiar or stay behind me, in case they have high powered weaponry.” Alesticar warned Selphir.
“I will, sir.” Selphir confirmed the command.

---

Not too far away, town militia bells were clanging furiously. Guards from all four corners of the village were assembling with assorted plasma and combustion guns.
“What’s going on here?!” The general in charge of the dozens of troops shouted at the top of his lungs. “I didn’t order for an assembly drill!”
“General! It’s not a drill! It’s him! He’s here!” A tower guard shouted back down to the commander.
“God damn it! I didn’t think he’d be here so soon!” The general donned a look of surprise and despair. “Alright men! Get out our secret weapon! If that doesn’t take him down, I’m afraid nothing will!”

Obeying their orders like dogs, the lowly foot soldiers went around back to a storage facility in town, and soon reemerged with a giant, gun-like contraption. They wheeled it over to the main entrance of the base, and anchored it to the ground, so it wouldn’t slide backwards from the kick it gave off.
“The finest weapon smiths of Krishnii constructed this gun.” The general announced to the soldiers. “This baby fires over 25,000 piercing rounds of plasma per minute!” Gasps and applause broke out over this astonishing number.
“Now let’s give it good to this asshole.” The general narrowed his eyes.

---

Alesticar noticed something was wrong when he heard the distant ringing of bells. His decaying ears managed to perk up as much as they could.
“They’ve prepared for us already, Selphir.” Alesticar mentioned to his right-hand man marching behind him.
“I know. I heard the bells. I’m already far behind you.” Selphir shouted over to Alesticar, as he stood a dozen yards or so behind him.
“Well, it looks like the fun is about to begin then.” Alesticar pulled his Aerional Shaft from inside his cloak.

With each step that he took, Alesticar became more and more acute to the details of the town ahead of him.
“Halt right there!” He heard a voice say ahead of him. “You’ll take no step further… you wretched monster!”
“Oh ho ho!” Alesticar’s eyes and grin widened as he laughed. “I see you fine fellows have taken the liberty to try to stop me! Alas, it is sad for me to say that that is all you will manage to do… TRY.”
“I think not, Alesticar.” The general said, looking away from the 1st Plague’s wretched face. “You were mortal once, as the stories all go, and I’m fairly certain that you’re quite able to be destroyed… Plague or not!”
“That would be where you’re wrong.” Alesticar’s eyes dropped from boredom. “As far as I know, we 13 Plagues are pretty damn indestructible.”
“A Plague is a disease… a corruption… an illness… and everyone knows that even the worst of illnesses can be cured through perseverance! So, let us test your theory of indestructibility!” The general retorted to Alesticar.

“FIRE!!”

In an instance, the anchored gun whirled up, and began bombarding Alesticar in a flurry of bullets. Thousands of beams of light headed towards the Plague with horrendous speed.
“Gaah!” Alesticar gasped as his body slowly filled up with plasma holes.
“Keep firing men!” The general in town screamed over the motor of the gun.
“Aye, sir!” The gunmen replied.

Minutes clocked by, and the gun continued firing on Alesticar. By now, however, the gunmen tilted their aim towards the ground, since they were sure he had fallen over, that his legs had buckled from the bullet wounds, and that they were now just shooting his corpse for overkill purposes. Beams of plasma light continued streaming out of the end of the cannon until a red light on the weapon’s prompter screen began flashing.
“The gun is overheating sir, and we’re running low on ammunition.” One of the gunmen reported.
“Very well. Shut her down, men.” The general ordered with displeasure. “Although if it were up to me and I had an unlimited amount of bullets, I’d fire at this son of a bitch until I lay down on my death bed.” He snatched the loose cigarette from his mouth and dropped it on the ground, smashing it under his foot soon after.

With a few flips of switches and button commands, the gun ceased firing beams of plasma in Alesticar’s general direction, but continued to spin around for a few seconds before it slowed down to a stop. The high pitched whirling of the engine had also dropped in tone and eventually disappeared.

Dust from the crystal ground surrounded the area where Alesticar stood. The one major hazard of Krishnii was its crystalline surface. Inhaling dust from the quadrillions of vast green crystals scattered across the planet were potentially fatal if not cured within a short period of time. This ended up feeding the hope of the general and the gunmen, whom were all so intent on destroying the 1st Plague and becoming heroes across the universe.

As the cloud dispersed, the guards spotted a limp body on the ground, still clutching its prized Aerional shaft in hand.
“We did it!” One of the gunners shouted in enthusiasm. “We killed Alesticar the moster!”
“Hold.” The general emotionlessly held his arm out, motioning the gunmen to keep their positions. “Reload a new canister of plasma.”
“Sir…?” The gunner became extremely worried as his eyes shot back and forth between the corpse and the general.
“Do it.” One of the other gunners said to the confused one as he saw the solemn, serious look in the general’s complexion.

As the group took out the empty plasma canister, discarded it, and began hooking up the new one, Alesticar slowly began standing up.
“God damn it all…!” The general cursed under his breath. He had begun to shake all over, not sure how a being could not expire from the massive amount of damage that was dealt to him.
“Oh ho… you have... a pretty… advanced weapon… there.” Alesticar wheezed as he hoisted himself up with help from his Aerional shaft.
“So you felt that after all!” The general laughed uneasily.
“I suppose I did.” Alesticar looked down at himself, studying the oozing green blood sliding out of the thousands of holes throughout my body. After checking himself over, he noticed that his cloak was nearly eradicated by holes.
“You bastards…” Alesticar’s eyes darkened with hatred. “You’ve ruined my favorite bone cloak! Now I’m going to have to make a new one!”

The general, sensing impending doom headed his way from the infuriated Alesticar, began to panic.
“Fire men! Hit him again! More plasma! More plasma!” He took a few steps back in fear. The gun began to whirl up, but Alesticar reacted in a split second, taking up his Aerional shaft and hurling it towards the gun.

The anchored gun whirled around for a second of so, but was soon impaled by the thrown shaft. Jamming the barrels of the gun, the machine began to spin erratically and soon preceded to fire. The exception this time around, however, was that beams of plasma ricocheted off the Aerional shaft impaled through the barrels, causing the bullets to blast out of the gun in random directions.

The gunners began running for their lives, save for one who tried to shut off the machine via control panel. The general dove behind a nearby watch down, barely evading the beams of plasma. The other soldiers were not as fortunate. The haphazard blasts of plasma ended up launching into the backsides of the terrified, fleeing soldiers. The control panel overloaded with plasma and ended up exploding in the face of the desperate soldier who remained behind, sending fragments and pieces of the back of the gun flying everything.

The general started quietly weeping behind the watch tower, fearing for his life and sanity.
“Where are you, little commander…?” Alesticar hissed across the village. Many of the townsfolk had evacuated by order of the guards, so it was only the general who heard the horrifying, evil voice spread across the town. The air was so thick with malice that the general could barely breathe. It was as if he were being choked by an aura of hatred. A thing that is neither tangible nor avoidable.
“Oh God… Please leave me in peace… Go away you devil…” The general prayed to himself as he heard Alesticar marching around the camp behind him.

Two of the soldiers on the ground groaned in pain. Alesticar put his pacing on pause and walked over to the dying guardians of the village.
“I see you’re both still kicking, hm?” Alesticar kicked them in the sides, causing them to cry out in agony.
“Burn in hell… That’s where you belong anyways…” One of the guards sputtered, blood oozing out the sides of his mouth.
“Lighten up. You gave it to me about a trillion times worse than what I did unto you.” Alesticar retorted and laughed, poking all the different holes on his arms, legs, torso, and even his head.
“You must be… some sort of God to take a punishment that harsh and still live to tell the tale.” The other soldier wheezed as he clutched his stomach.
“Not quite.” Alesticar stopped laughed and became sternly serious. “I must admit, I’m not 100% invulnerable to everything. It’s just that you fools don’t know the secret to the Plagues destruction.” He grinned fiendishly as the soldiers both stared at him wide-eyed.
“How exactly are we supposed to kill you then?!” One of the guards started get furious and disregarded his pain. “I mean come on! We littered your body with plasma! You should be dead on the ground from something like that! The amount of plasma you took on would be enough to kill an army of about 15,000 men…” The man’s anger melted away into despair and uncaring. The imminence of his death overshadowed the secret of how to destroy the Scout of Sorrow.
“Forget I even said such things.” Alesticar chuckled. “I’ll just leave you here with a little present, to help take away your misery.”

Alesticar dug around the inside of one of his plasma wounds on his chest with his index and middle finger. He rummaged around in his torso for a second or two, then pulled out a wad of his goopy, green blood.
“No! Get that shit away from me!” One of the guards began squirming away from Alesticar, digging his heels into the crystal ground and pushing away.
“Oh just relax. It will sooth your soul.” Alesticar crept forward.
“What’s so bad about that?” The other guard said, perplexed by his fellow comrade’s reaction. “It just looks like he going to put his blood on you.”
“You fool!” The mortified guard snapped at his witless companion. “Alesticar is infamous for his ability to snap people’s minds! That’s why we haven’t been looking at his face!”
“Yeah, so…?” The other guard still had no clue what his friend was getting at.
“So…! That blood of his is LIQUID INSANITY!” The scared guard explained. “If it gets on you, that’s it. Game over. It will absorb through your skin, travel around your veins, and reach your brain. It won’t matter WHICH way to look. You’ll snap no matter what.”
“Oh shit man.” The other guard caught on now. “I’ve seen what his insanity does to people through pictures and description. We got to get out of here!” The guard tried to get up and limp away, but Alesticar grabbed onto his shirt.

The guard yelped at the touch of Alesticar. The bony fingers were much like the clutch of Death.
“I don’t believe it’s polite to refuse an offer for help.” Alesticar lowered his tone of voice. “I said that this substance would help you. Don’t listen to your pathetic friend on the ground over there. He’s lying.” Alesticar shoved the green goop down the guards mouth, then pushed him back on the ground.
“No!” The other guard squealed as he watched his friend furiously spit out the goop, but soon succumb to insanity.
“It’s too late for both of you.” Alesticar said to the uninfected guard on the ground. With a flick of the wrist, Alesticar flicked the remaining specks of the green goop into the guard’s eyes.

Alesticar resumed his search for the general as the guards lay screaming on the ground behind him.
“Come out, you coward!” Alesticar bellowed, his voice nearly cracking nearby windows. The general continued to sit behind the guard tower, afraid that any movement would provoke the attention of the 1st plague, and would seal his fate for good.

Silence. For an extremely long time, the general heard nothing. No footsteps, no gurgling from his troops, and no beckoning calls from Alesticar. Thinking irrationally, the general squirmed out of his statue position, and slowly crawled on all fours towards the edge of the watch tower, going to peer around the corner for a sign of Alesticar.

The second the general looked around the corner, he came eye to eye with Alesticar. The plague was crouched over on the ground, allowing his immensely disturbing orange eyes to drop to the same level as the general’s.
“Good god!” The general looked away as fast as he could, reeling backwards and trying to run away. Alas, Alesticar Manjara was much too quick for the old soldier. He pounced on top of the commander, and hoisted him up into the air by the collar with the same bony fingers that marked the doom of the clueless soldier.
“Now… I do believe you have information on the whereabouts of a certain friend of mine…” Alesticar ominously spoke.

To Be Continued…