Age of Azmoq: The Valantian Imperium

by Rajamayyoor Sharma

  But that wasn’t what I wanted. I needed complete isolation from this new regime and all the people who were under its control. I soon began to explore the surroundings. I found a way to this spot, surrounded by dense vegetation. It was much smaller than it is now, covered mostly in shrubs and a few trees. But it definitely had a lower density of trees that the rest of the forest. Plus, there was the lake. I started to clear it, to create enough space for my life.

  There were others from Nuevida who weren’t happy with their first settlement. They soon found me and this spot and joined me in creating space for our lives. Then, a group of warriors, who were loyal to the seven kings, escaped into the forests. There were over 5000 who entered, only about 200 survived till they reached this spot. That was the start of this village. We slowly created some trails to access the outside world. But over decades we realized we had everything we needed, here itself.

  And so Villasboro was born isolated from the world, by design. There was something amazing that soon started to happen. The energy emitted from the Varta blade, coupled with the Azmoq reserves in the land and the miracle drug of the hills, prolonged everyone’s lives. I could live comfortably here, without drawing suspicion, forever. Every few years, I would leave the village, spend that time in the hills or the forest, or occasionally exploring the outside world and come back as my own son. Given my reputation as a loner, and the long lives everyone lived, I was able to integrate back into the village easily.

  And so, the swords, including mine, which were real, slowly passed into anonymity. I waited, for a time, when we could rise again, against Valantian’s legacy, and establish a world that was fair and balanced.

  A couple of decades ago, I thought that was happening. I was out in the world on one of my trips, when I came to know of the revolution. I thought I would join, but then I hesitated. I figured it was more prudent to observe the revolution a bit more before I jumped in. In that time, I met the Yerins and helped them out with their troubles. But then, in a few years, I realized the revolution was going to fail, and this was not the right time. So I returned to the village, around the time you were born young man. And I bid for more time.

  Then there was the assassination attempt on your friend. That’s when I realized the village’s time in the shadows was over. We had to prepare for an attack. This was an illegal settlement sitting over an Azmoq reserve. I knew it had been discovered when I had examined the assassin’s blade with the Azmoq detection strip on it. The village was going to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. I trained the villagers in self-defense and strategized for its defenses.

  Then the troops showed up. They asked for some papers that we didn’t have. We were asked to surrender. That’s when the fight started. You all know the rest. Now, do you have any questions before I tell you my thoughts on what we need to do now?

  Chapter 46: The reason for fighting

  The company of four was completely silent after the tale of Grim’s life.

  Absorbing what had just been said. Karn looked a little sad. Dev did not know what to say to his 400-year-old master. It felt weird for him to even think of it.

  But he had the first question anyway.

  “Grim, your life story is…incredible. I have so many things to ask you… But let me ask you this first—one part of your story didn’t add up. How is it that the first sword found in recent times, the Anzelmen was discovered in a part of river Valkian that had been frozen for the last 1000 years, when you said that the families of the original students have had the swords for centuries?”

  Grim looked up at the sky. It was getting dark. The sun was setting. He spoke as he looked up, almost reverentially. “Even among the seven swords, the Anzelmen, was deemed too powerful by the first seven kings. Though I hear a powerful man holds the sword now, there is no way he has unlocked the true power of this sword.

  Rudra was the first great king who had it. He personally ensured that the sword was well hidden before he died. After this decision, Rudra realized that there were other swords Ayasiddh had created besides the seven swords “gifted” to the kings. Some of them he thought were too dangerous for humans to possess. So again, Rudra personally ensured that they were hidden before he passed away. Ayasiddh was a great man, but sometimes he didn’t recognize his own genius and the dangers his creations possessed.”

  Karn seemed intrigued and excited, yet sad at the same time. Dev understood the reason for Karn’s jumbled sentiments. Karn’s dream was to search and collect all the swords of legend. He was much closer to the knowledge he was seeking, and had seen three of those swords in action. He was sad despite that, because although his dreams were coming true, he was not in possession of even a single sword.

  No one else asked anything else for a while. The sun had set. All of them were sitting in darkness, being able to see each other in the moonlight. No one moved.

  Kazena grunted. “What did you mean when you said to the soldiers, ‘We have three now. We will have the rest?’”

  Grim stood up and took a deep breath.

  “For over a millennium, never has more than one sword been present in the same location. In this battle, three of the swords entered combat, purely coincidentally, together on the same day, on the same side. I truly believe, that this is the moment I have been waiting for. The time to strive for real peace and progress in the world. For that to happen, we have to create a movement that opposes the current leaders of our mainland. And farther down the line, the entire world. A resistance.

  This resistance will have one powerful allure—we will have three of the swords of legend. They lend us credibility. If we have all the legendary swords, we would, in the minds of the people, have the moral right to overthrow the current leaders, to destroy the regime.”

  Despite Grim’s grandiose vision, and obvious belief in his vision, most of them were skeptical. Elbir spoke first. “Master, I understand that this is a monumental moment. A moment when three of the greatest swords ever made have come together. But even with all of them, we can’t take on the Valantian army. They have hundreds of thousands of troops. I mean, we could make initial gains, carry out guerilla warfare for some time, but eventually, just their sheer numbers would destroy us.

  “Look what happened to the revolution. Even with the Anzelmen, they lost all battles subsequent to the Battle of the Bloody River. And in all those battles, Valantian Imperium used less than a quarter of its military strength. I am all for going up against this enemy, but I don’t want to risk the lives of others on a venture that is doomed from the get go. We just have a thousand, barely trained villagers. This not an army. Certainly not one that can defeat the Imperium or even come close.”

  Grim ran his hands through his hair and beard. He had started to pace, forcing everyone to follow his movements in the dark of the night.

  “You are right. There isn’t any way of winning this in the long run, without a large army. But you forget the power of symbols. The swords of legend, if wielded even by men commanding a small army of a thousand, will attract many more from the land. Smaller army units, commoners willing to fight, all will come.”

  Dev intervened. “There is another source for men—the revolutionaries stuck behind the blockade. If we can devise a way to get them out… maybe using Kazena’s invisibility, we will have access to 10,000 more men.”

  Grim looked quizzically at Dev. “Blockade?”

  Dev was happy that there was something he knew that Grim didn’t. “Yes… The last of the revolutionary forces were chased into the Devian section of the Üzilis Mountains by the Valantian Army. However, the Valantian Army was not able to finish the revolutionaries off. With the help of a local tribe who were experts in hillside guerilla tactics, and the amplified powers of the Anzelmen in the confines of the one of the wettest places in the mainland, the revolutionaries managed to hold a large number of Valantian troops at bay.

  So the Valantian army blockaded the entire area, using over 50,000 troops. They were at a stalema
te—the Valantian army could not enter without sustaining heavy losses and possibly allowing the revolutionaries to escape. The revolutionaries could not escape, without losing almost all their forces fighting the army in the open. If we can find a solution to their predicament, we can get access to a large force that has been fighting against the Valantian Imperium.”

  Before Grim could react, Karn burst out, despite his extreme pain and exhaustion. “What are you guys talking about?! These scenarios are just figments of your imagination. No one believes in these swords more than I do, but they can’t trigger another revolution. They are powerful symbols, but they can’t get people to risk their lives. Grim, I know you don’t get out much, but you really should. You will see what the reality of our land is.

  “The common man is more or less satisfied with his life. More than anything else, there is actual peace in the continent. The Valantian Imperium isn’t doing anything terrible. Nothing anyone else in power wouldn’t do. All they have done is ensure there is no conflict. There isn’t conflict, there isn’t pain, and there isn’t death in the continent through random aggression. The threat of death hangs over every person who breaks the law laid down by the Imperium, but people have come to accept that as a part of life.

  “People might be a little unhappy, but they aren’t miserable. No one will support this. In fact, people will be wary of any army that tries to destabilize this life, increasing the threat to their lives.

  “This is why the revolution failed. Why could they not push ahead after their success at the Battle of the Bloody River? Because no one wanted to join them. Their numbers, which fell in the battle, never recovered. They couldn’t convince any more people to join the revolution. Why did they fail to get any more men? Because no one wanted to join! There is peace in the continent. No one wanted to destroy that. Even if you can rescue the revolutionary army from the blockade, get all the seven swords, this ‘change’ will not happen. There is no need for a change. What are the people going to gain? More bloodshed? More death? Tell me, Grim, Dev? What will the people gain?”

  Kazena growled and folder her arms. “Oh, let me tell you what people will gain. Let me tell you what their reason to fight is.” Everyone was surprised. She hadn’t spoken at all so far.

  “There is a reason why I was searching for the revolutionaries. The reason lies in the journey I took, over two years ago. This was when I came to possess the spear of destiny. When I stole the spear of destiny, I was hunted by almost all Valantian troops present in the Capitol Hills. Things got so bad that I was soon surrounded by over 5000 Valantian troops searching for me, with over 100 men breaking down my door. I had no escape within the Capitol Hills, even with the help of my swords. There was literally no place to hide.

  “The only option I had was to spin as many times as possible to hopefully be able to somehow jump outside Ganolfan, to some place in the mainland. The destination I had in my mind was Welehölla. I continued to spin till the soldiers broke the door and almost caught me. Then I stopped. I had succeeded in getting out of Ganolfan. In fact I had succeeded in leaving this continent.

  “I landed up in a place far away from anything I had known in my entire life. A place, a continent spoken of, only in hushed tones. A continent whose true name is never even uttered here in Valantia. Referred to, only as the land of fear, the Dark Continent. I came to learn why it was called so.”

  Dev was spellbound by her manner of speaking. “What happened?”

  Kazena told the group, what she had never told anyone in Valantia, about what happened during her unexpected journey to the Dark Continent.

  “I spent almost a year there, learning what the continent was about. I initially thought I had travelled into the future somehow, but I soon learned otherwise. They people there measure their lives from the time Deusorthok came to be, unlike us who use formation of Azmoqshthaal as year zero[11].

  “Those people call their continent Shwasthal, which means ‘the land of tomorrow,’ in Deusorthok. The people there struggle every day of their lives. There is darkness in the skies that lasts for days. There is little open space, with almost no grasslands and rivers. The people there are working for 15 hours a day or more. But they are all happy. Do you know why?

  “They are making progress. The whole land is making progress. They have managed to learn ways of doing things we never could. They have found a way to mix Azmoq with other metals, to allow them to do all this. They have found ways of stretching the minimal Azmoq reserves that they have to the limit. They have found a way to the future.

  “They are not perfect. There is darkness there because the methods they use are still being perfected. There are large palaces called ‘factories’ that create dark clouds through the day, filling the sky with darkness. But they are still finding ways to improve, to reduce the dark clouds. The people there are not perfect. There is still murder, theft and rape. But their laws are changing, they are using the advances they make with the metal to catch criminals and prevent such crimes. They are making progress.

  “Our current leaders will never allow that. Even if the people want it. Azmoq is too dangerous. Its military applications far outweigh its benefits to the people. Their paranoia around power is preventing them from thinking about the people. Thousands still die of diseases every day because we don’t know enough. Equal numbers die of old age at an age that is considered young in Shwasthal.

  “Yes, this generation of the common man will suffer if we fight now. But the next and the next after that will thank us for lifting the tyranny of the past from their present. They will live happier and safer lives. If only someone will stand up and fight for the future. Now.”

  It was a powerful speech, delivered by an extremely impassioned Kazena. She was shouting by the middle of it, inviting onlookers from the villagers and soldiers alike. At the end of it, there was silence.

  Then Fred shouted from a distance. “I will fight! I did not hear it all, but what I heard is enough. I will fight for the future!”

  Then another shouted. “I will fight for the future!”

  Then almost all people who heard her picked up the chant. “I will fight for the future.”

  Kazena was surprised. She didn’t think she could inspire Karn, let alone so many people. Elbir was beaming and also joined in. “I will fight for the future as well!”

  Kazena looked at Karn. Karn who maintained a dead pan expression throughout Kazena’s speech, smiled as a tear dropped from his left eye. “I will fight for the future. For you,” he said, in a low voice.

  Grim shouted back to everyone. “We all will fight for the future! But right now, go secure our present!” Everyone laughed and returned to their tasks, excited by the future that Kazena had laid out for them.

  Grim then sat down. “Karn, I did not know about this. I just knew that the regime we had was not right. But with Kazena telling me about Shwasthal, I am even more convinced about what I want to do, about why we must rebel. Do you believe in the cause now?”

  Karn was back to his jovial self, hiding a storm of emotions inside. “This is a cause… that seems worthy… for now. But once we embark, we have to believe in it with all our heart. Because we are going up against the entire mainland. Unless we start to win really big really soon, the future we fight for will be lost forever.”

  Grim nodded. “It will. Which is why we must find the swords before we start a war against the entire continent. It is critical….”

  He was silent for a while. It seemed as if he was struggling to get the words out.

  “There is something else… Something that is pivotal for our struggle….”

  He was silent again.

  “My father, and my grandfather before that, told me a story. Ayasiddh was, as we all know, a genius. And he created the seven swords as a tribute to the first seven great kings. But that story is not entirely true. Ayasiddh was forced by the seven great kings to give up his swords to them.

  Ayasiddh had created many swords, of varyi
ng power. He was done with seven of the strongest when the seven kings consolidated their power. When they realized what Ayasiddh was doing, they reached out to him, and “persuaded,” him to part with seven of his creations. They had a similar fear as the current rulers have. These swords in the hands of their enemies, could destabilize the entire continent. So they took the swords, celebrated Ayasiddh and his gifts, and placed him at the center stage so that he could be monitored for the rest of his life. He continued to work on lesser swords, spent time teaching his students, so it seemed like he had stopped making swords of a similar caliber.

  But he hadn’t. He was working on creating his ultimate weapon. The original driver for Ayasiddh’s swords. He wanted to combine them into one ultimate weapon, so that the man who ruled the world could maintain peace without disruption. The seven kings had no idea of this intention when they took the blades from him. Only two people beside Ayasiddh knew of them, and that was because he couldn’t have carried out the deceit alone. My grandfather was one of those men.

  Although the kings lauded Ayasiddh and his creations, and placed him at the center of the world, he knew what they were doing. He knew he was a prisoner. He never craved anything earlier. But after his creations were taken from him, all he felt was anger.

  So he continued to work on that one weapon, without revealing its nature to anyone, including the kings. Ayasiddh didn’t reveal it even to my grandfather. He called it “the master sword,” although it wasn’t a sword at all. My grandfather’s best guess was that it was an armor of some sort that could incorporate all the seven into it, and somehow integrate their powers. But he never came to know. He did come to know when Ayasiddh finished the master sword.