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Alright, here is the conglomerate version to make things easier for some people. All of chapter one is here. Enjoy~
Avion: The Two Faced War
By Kyomen
Chapter One: Arrival
Hello, my name is Avion. I have curly brown hair, dark brown eyes, height of about five foot eleven inches, and have fair muscle tone. I am, or rather, I was the king of a nation. The nation was called Ava. It might have been much like the realm you reside in. It might not. Ava was a peaceful world where people were moral, content, and faithful. All the land within the world was connected. All the villages, towns, cities, states, and even countries supported one another. Ava had everything; vast plains as far as the eye could see or even comprehend; majestic mountains whose snow covered peaks seemed to touch even the highest part of heaven; oceans which wrapped the entire planet in a generous navy blue; an eternal sky which hid the star coated heavens and disclosed them only after revealing its many ravishing hues; and finally its exuberant inhabitants whose very existence undoubtedly completed the utopian conglomerate. The sad thing though, is that I do not know what has become of it.
This is where my story beings. The capitol of Ava, Lilium, named after our God. Lilium once, long ago, came to our world and graced us with unfathomable knowledge. She taught us how to control the energies of life and the flow of all things. This knowledge is what we use to slow our aging and increase our longevity. To give you an example, I am one-hundred-fifty years old; yet, I appear as though I am around thirty-three. Our average age is approximately two-hundred years old. I suppose that’s enough of a history lesson for now; I’ve gotten off track. Pardon my rambling. Anyway, my home is a rather large building called a Vemora. It’s about seven stories high with shingle roofing, which comes to a point at the top forming a square pyramid, and a red-brick exterior. The only extraordinary thing about the building is the front door. It’s a hulking slab of finely polished white marble with the inscription “May Lilium Bring Thy Soul to Peace” across the uppermost edge. A Vemora isn’t exactly what you’d expect a king to live in, but I am not the kind to flash such trivial things like material wealth. It is more of a town hall than my home I suppose. Many people come in every day to work “desk jobs”. They keep the town orderly, thriving, and happy by deciding on laws and acts, voting for them, as well as keeping the budget balanced. In the dead center of the building, is the throne room where I occasionally go to work or relax.
Sitting on my throne, without a care in the world, I glanced about the room with tranquil eyes. Finely woven tapestry hung from the granite ceiling, invisibly lighting the room with its nostalgic rose colored thread. Carefully sewn doves fill the center of these rectangular sheets of velvet. As I cast my sight lower, thick marble pillars, which support the high ceiling with their impossible strength, fill the room. In my mind, these pillars are like the people who hold this nation together. Alone, none of them can hold this ceiling, but together they hold it up with little effort. At the underbelly of my view, I witness the brilliance of the shining obsidian tiles covering the floor from wall to wall. In the center of these tiles is a long narrow carpet made of tightly woven thread that had been dyed red. The carpet was outlined with a golden color. The lengthy floor decoration traveled from the entrance to the throne where I was perched indolently.
Soon, I began to tap exasperatingly on the arm of my throne as I tried to decide what need to be done today. Suddenly, the sound of rubber soles stepping on tile echoed throughout the throne room. When I think back on it, that sound may just have been the most horrifying sound that I’ve ever heard.
I raised my head and leered down the red carpet. There, in the shadows, was my older step-brother, Raleigh. He wore a bright pair of black leather shoes, whose neck was covered by a pair of long tan slacks. His slender torso was shrouded by a white cotton button-up shirt, and over his long boney arms was a caramel jacket. Raleigh’s long blonde hair was tied up into a pony tail while two bangs of hair dangled in front of his eyebrows. Piercing through the shadows, were his light blue eyes and slender features. At his side, my loving wife and darling son. They wore virginal white clothing. Their faces were encased in shadow. “What’re you three doing here,” I asked cheerily, “come to visit me?”
Raleigh shifted his weight unto his left foot and adjusted his collar with his right thumb and index finger. “No” answered Raleigh calmly.
“Then what is it my dear step-brother?”
“We’ve come to tell you something”
“Well, what is it?”
“Your reign as king, my dear Avion, is at an end”
I straightened my back and gripped my throne as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. As the word, “Over”, left his lips, the bodies of my beloved queen, Jennifer, and my dear son, Daniel, began to fall to the floor. It all seemed to slow down for me. My heart beat wildly as it sank into my stomach. The expression on my face screamed sadness and horror as a loud “thud” sound reached my ears. Dark red pools of blood sullied the backs of their virginal white shirts. Rage began to fill my heart, as Raleigh wiped the blood of my loved ones off a steel dagger. I began to scream his name in utter hate, but I could not finish due to an incredible pain that ran through my abdomen. I let out a sudden yell, in agony, as a long iron sword tore through my stomach and pierced through the front of my torso. My red shirt darkened with blood, and I clutched the arm of my throne, tilting my head back in shear pain, as the blade ran through my body. The rage in my face quickly mixed with extreme physical and emotional agony. Out of the corner of my eye the feint image of my younger step-brother, Charles, moved past me. Charles was a stout man who usually wore an array of army green clothing. A small beard hung from his chiseled jaw. His blonde hair was usually messy and unorganized.
My neck slowly began to lose strength as I lost more and more blood. I felt light headed. The bodies of my family lay across the room, limp and lifeless. Charles and Raleigh left the large and extravagant room. My vision began to phase in and out, and my head slowly lowered. I was now looking at the weapon, which lead to my tragic end. My blood was scattered along the length of the blade in no particular patter. The liquid of life, which had sustained me all of my life, was now slowly trickling out of my abdomen along the iron wrought blade. Once it had reached the tip, the blood pooled into a small drop and then dropped into my lap. I sat there, pinned to my throne, full of rage, agony, and melancholy; and for the second time in my life, I felt alone.
With my last breath, oddly familiar warmth submerged my body; I felt at peace. A calm and rejuvenating light filled my view and a quiet whisper was all that I could hear. The warmth of this vaguely familiar light bathed my skin in a relaxing aura. Now that I recall the whisper, I could have sworn that it was the loving voice of my dear Jennifer. My soul had accepted death. The absolute calm, which filled every fiber of my being, every part of my soul, felt as if Lilium herself grasped my soul and engorged it with eternal peace. Thought of the next world leapt around my mind and the hope of being reunited with my family filled my heart. Then, without warning, it was all torn away. I could feel the weight of my living body holding my soul in place and all the emotions returned to me once more. My heart began to beat, breath returned to my lungs, and all the hate, melancholy, and revenge, swelled in my mind.
My eyes opened and I gasped for breath purely out of surprise. My eyes stung a bit for it was unbearably bright. I was alive. Realizing that I should not be, I quickly examined my body for the wound, which Charles inflicted upon me, nothing. I was flabbergasted. Lying back down upon the ground, I realized something. I was no longer within the confines of my castle! This fact startled me so much that I began to grasp the ground in order to feel its texture. All that was beneath me was dry, barren soil. The sky above me was cloudy and gray. I sat up to examine my surroundings; much to my surprise, it was empty. There were a few dead, leafless trees scattered about the barren terrain, but that was it. Never in my life had I seen something so... so lifeless, and there I sat, in the middle of nowhere, dead center of a barren wasteland. In the distance I heard several loud bangs followed by a flurry of hushed, in comparison, bangs. Over the course of the next couple minutes, the sounds got louder and closer until I could see a large amount of men rushing my way, down a distant hill, in vehicles I've never seen before. I stood up with great haste in order to move out of their way. They wore faded brown clothing and carried odd weapons. As they dashed past me, I could clearly hear some of their cries. "Hurry up!" some said, "Drive faster damn it!" others yelled, "Gigas is coming!" I thought for a brief moment, "Gigas..? What in the hell is a Gigas?" Soon after this thought my question was answered.
The hill in front of me suddenly exploded! Shards of dry earth scattered across the land and the cries of the men were muffled by the enormous explosion. I quickly covered my head and got down on one knee as to protect myself from any falling debris. I looked up curiously for a moment and then I saw it, Gigas. It was a massive human like machine which carried weapons similar to that of the men driving by me. It possessed a slender head, which bright demonic red eyes rest upon. It was unimaginably tall! Width to height ratio it wasn't that "large" in regards to the size of its arms, legs, and body. It was painted red on its chest plate, forearms, and shins. The rest of its body looked as if it was made out of cast iron or some kind of rusted titanium. For a few instances it stood there, in the still flying debris, and seemed to stare me dead in the eye. Then it raised it's long, skinny arm and pulled the trigger on its weapon. Rounds of ammunition began to fire off and hit several of the retreating vehicles. I was unable to move. Fear had paralyzed my body. All I could do was watch those men get blown to smithereens. Their blood scattered across the field of impact; their vehicles were decimated; their limbs scattered. Some blood even splashed abruptly across my face and the windshields of neighboring cars. It was like a holocaust was taking place right before my eyes.
Then, all of a sudden, my mind began to swell with unimaginable anger. Anger which literally burned my brain and etched itself into my skull. I closed my eyes and fell to my knees, clutching my head. The painful memories of my loved ones hitting the floor filled my mind. Everything else around me suddenly disappeared and all that remained were the blood ridden corpses of my wife and child. The dagger which has killed them was floating carelessly above their bodies. Their blood dripped from its tip. I opened my eyes and looked up at the massive "Death Machine" and the image of my brother, Raleigh, took its place. It began to rain almost as if the heavens were crying for my family. I could feel the cold drops of rain trickle down my skin. The anger that burned inside of me swiftly replaced that cold feeling with an unbearable heat. A blood curdling scream leapt out of my mouth. I became overwhelmed with pain. It felt like my skin was on fire. Suddenly, I found myself looking down upon the holocaust like scene, and surely enough I could see myself. What was happening? How was I having an out of body experience? I was completely and utterly confused. Then I noticed something. I felt no anger, no rage, and that unbearable heat had vanished; all without a trace. As I took a closer look at myself down below, I could see that I was still wrought with anger, rage, and pain.
With closer examination, the drops of rain which fell upon me turned to water vapor and floated back into the sky. What the hell was going on? I seemed to float closer to what was apparently my body. It began to stand up on its own. Its head no longer clutched and its body no longer trembling from the agonizing pain. Its eyes, however, were still closed. My body remained still and emotionless for several seconds, completely unaffected by the chaos around it. Without warning, it quickly raised its arm and opened his hand. There in its hand materialized some sort of slightly curved sword. The sword was made out of some lustrous white metal. The blade was thin and double-edged. The hilt was an empty square with black vine like decorations that wrapped around the blade, and was placed between the tip of the handle and the blade. The handle was made out of the same kind of metal as the blade, but it was long and rectangular with rounded edges; it was also wrapped in tightly woven obsidian thread. My hand grasped the handle in mid-air. Then my wrist snapped and whipped the blade to the right piercing one of the on-coming vehicles. This fast moving vehicle drove straight through the blade creating sparks from the metal on metal contact and friction. These sparks ignited the fuel within the vehicle's gas tank and exploded right as the blade exited the rear end. The two men inside the vehicle were incinerated, and my body still stood there, emotionless, its arm outstretched; the tears of heaven still evaporating off its skin.
As I stood there fearing for my body, it began to move. It took a few slow steps which soon began to slothfully escalate into a brisk pace. With each step, my fingers tapped the handle of the blade in order from pinky to index finger. As the next retreating vehicle approached, the tormented husk let out an eerie shriek. The shriek sounded like a dieing angry animal was letting its opponent know it was about to tear it to shreds. This cry was instantly followed by a spontaneous switch to a sprinting pace. The speed was remarkable and amazingly enough it was graceful as gazelle. This surprised me because I knew my body was still in horrible agony. While it ran towards the unsuspecting vehicle, I noticed that as my clothing rubbed against my skin it was singed to the touch. I was soon, however, distracted from this minor detail due to the fact that my body was cocking its right arm back into a swinging position. The vehicle passed. My arm swung. The blade sliced through the vehicle and the frightened men like a butter knife through butter. This fact aside, I was even more amazed at the pure force and power that the blade was swung with. The weapon was swiped with such speed and strength that the gust following it almost toppled the vehicle! This mass of metal, which easily weighed over two tons, was nearly toppled by air! The same scenario that was applied to the first vehicle was applied to this one. The sparks from contact ignited the fuel and blew the vehicle sky high. The flames burned a bright yellow-orange. Without warning, these flames were cut in two by yet another gust of air that was condensed into an invisible blade. This invisible blade of air sliced through the flames and cut into the neighboring vehicle and the one behind. These mobile machines did not explode; on the contrary, they were cut in half along with the men inside.
This rampage continued on for the next mile. My body would jump onto these cars; tear the men inside asunder within seconds, then leap to the next vehicle where it would do a range of things from destroying the vehicle with a slash of its sword to decapitating the men within from the outside. A strip of carnage a mile long was all that could be said for this line of death. Blood splattered on windshields, roofs torn off, cars decimated, dismembered limbs scattered, and flames jumping from the assimilated wrecks. Within just two and a half minutes my body had sprinted, not jogged, sprinted a full mile. (That's twenty-four mph which is just damn.) The mindless husk soon approached its real target, the giant death machine. This massive machine towered fifteen stories above my enraged body; yet, it still approached without any kind of fear whatsoever. As my body broke within a hundred meters of the "Gigas", it hurled its arched sword at the leg of the beast. Within seconds the blade returned to my container's right hand and the leg of the death machine was lopped off. The same sharp gust of wind, that followed the blade's swings, followed the blade as it was thrown and hacked off the other leg! And so the "Gigas" began to fall.
Even before the legs fell off to the side and the body began to plummet towards the ground, my mindless body leapt an INSANE two and a half stories onto the slowly crumbling left leg of the Gigas. It climbed in leaps and bounds propelling itself upward, feet at a time, with my arms. Within moments the legs fell off and my body had reached the torso, which to my body was falling at an incredibly slow rate due to the fact that it was scaling this immense machine within seconds before it fell. On the torso, this monstrosity that I call a body began to dismember the death machine's arms. First, starting with the right arm, the blade within my right hand hacked off the right arm of the Gigas. The massive machine's head turned to examine its right arm and spotted my body. Only two words ran through my mind at that time; "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!” That was all I could think of to say. Right as the Gigas noticed my body it had hit the ground with an ear punishing crack.
The machine's left arm still took aim at my body. Despite its position, the Gigas began firing off a flurry of rounds from its massive weapon. The rounds of ammunition would have pierced straight through the machine's very own body. This was the end... or so I thought.
Remarkably, my body stood there, unharmed. It was surrounded by bullet holes within the machine's very own torso. For a couple seconds, my tortured body stood there staring down the barrel of this massive weapon with its closed eyes. The rain created a feint mist around my body as it evaporated off of my skin. My heated cage burst forward in a graceful dash towards the massive mechanical arm. On the way, it dodged, ducked, slid under, and parried every bullet that flew its way. Once under the large rifle, it leapt up into the air and swiftly sliced the entire weapon apart. My body proceeded to hop along the falling weapon pieces moving itself into a position where it could strike the arm; now that my body was in striking range, it resumed its deadly rampage and hacked up the machine's remaining arm. The Gigas had been defeated.
It stopped raining. Suddenly, I was pulled back into my body. I could feel the weight of my flesh and the smell of the wet, bloodly landscape beneath me. It was wrought with the scent of iron. I was facing the east and on the horizon I could see the vehicles of men halted and facing me. I could not make out their faces at the time, but I now know that they were utterly fearful; yet, they were full of relief. The tears of heaven straightened a few locks of my hair so that they fell upon my face. My clothing was blackened and singed beyond recognition. My head, for once, was calm and clear. I was strangely content. All of a sudden, tears began to streak down my cheeks.
Without warning, the pain I felt before my out of body experience returned in surplus. Mixed with the insane exhaustion I was feeling at the time, the pain rendered me unconscious. As this immense torture traveled throughout my body, I began to think about some things before I lost consciousness. What was going to happen to me now? Was I doomed to live in this wasteland forever? Am I going to die here? Is this a dream? Even if it wasn't, what did I have to live for? What did I have anymore? My kingdom was gone. My family died. The closest people I knew betrayed me. Not even the clothing on my back remained. I had nothing left. Nothing to look to except the future Lilium planned for me...
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A forum post should be like a skirt. Long enough to cover the subject material, but short enough to keep things interesting
-Kyo
When someone hits rock bottom, they usually say "No where to go but up". Right? Wrong! If you hit rock bottom hard enough you'll fall right into the mantle. If you live through that you'll hit the inner mantle. And through that the outter core. And still after that the inner core, but what comes next? You come out the other side. Those who hit rock bottom and act like they had it hard are just oblivious to the trip past that little safety net.
-Kyo
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