A Rising Tide

by Ross Buzzell

  Konner holds up his weapon. A straight sword reemerges as the metallic sword slams into the obstacle within its path. The force enacted upon is so great the prince feels the shock of the blow throughout his skeleton as he slides back ever so slightly. The two, now in a blade lock, Konner’s sword sputters glowing droplets of white hot energy as the metal of Xero’s weapon grinds against it. They make eye contact. The amount of rage and hate in the being’s eyes are rivaled by nothing the prince has ever seen before. This gives the attacker the look and personality less like a Boronian and more like a feral animal blessed with intelligence and a skill to fight unlike anything Konner has ever seen. Konner summons all his strength and with a powerful shove sends Xero sliding a few meters back. The room gives Konner a chance to look back at Na’era.

  “Get out of here! Find the Triad and tell them what is happening!”

  Konner barks. Quickly Na’era wraps her arms around their son and tries to run but slips on a piece of shattered glass. She catches herself as Konner sees movement out of the corner of his eye. In a flash Konner holds his weapon up and blocks another of Xero’s blows. The prince uses the force enacted upon him to propel himself up the side of the wall behind him. Konner takes a few steps up the marble face before he leaps off of it, flipping over Xero and swiping down at the invader as hard as he can. Xero ducks under Konner’s attack and as the new King’s feet hit the ground the gleaming flash of Xero’s blade catches Konner by surprise. The speed at which it moves is almost faster than the speed at which Konner can move. Almost instantly Konner’s sword shifts into a spear which blocks the attack. Konner grasps the back end of the energy spear, the hilt floating in the middle of the azure weapon. He changes his stance and spins Xero’s weapon away from himself. Xero uses the momentum to grasp a piece of debris and throw it at Na’era with such speed that Konner does not have time to react. His wife is knocked over, unharmed, once again by the invader. Konner jabs at Xero who dodges the attack. They engage once more. Xero changes his stance to effectively ward off Konner using swift blocks and parries to ward off Konner’s jabs. Konner puts everything he has into the fight with Xero, moving as quickly as he can, attacking more relentlessly than he ever has before but is unable to penetrate Xero’s defense. He keeps his weapon close to his body and able to use minimal movements to deflect Konner’s blows.

  Konner reevaluates his strategy. Intentionally the new King attacks Xero in such a way that it leaves his own defenses open. Xero takes the bait. He deflects Konner’s strike before attempting a jab at Konner’s open ribcage. In the span between heartbeats Konner spins. The spear turns into a large mace. He moves faster than Xero expects. The changing of Konner’s weapon gives the soldier the edge he needs. Before Xero’s blade meets its target, Konner knocks it off to the side and into the ground with the head of the mace. Seizing the opening Konner has given himself he slams his mace into Xero’s face with an incredibly powerful backhand which causes Xero to whip off to the side slightly. Before the intruder has a chance to right himself Konner’s weapon turns back into its straight sword as the prince plunges the weapon straight into the center of Xero’s chest only stopping because of the hilt. Konner’s eyes catch the end of the blade as it falls into his visual range after poking out of the back of the intruder. Xero staggers back, dropping his sword in the process before dropping to his knees. Konner breathes a sigh of relief as he sees his opponent defeated. He looks over to his wife who has nearly made it to the exit. He smiles at her as his breath is heavy and labored from expending so much energy in the fight.

  The look of horror on Na’era’s face brings a sense of dread to Konner which is only confirmed by a dark, twisted laughter that echoes from before the prince. Konner turns his head and sets his sights on the mountain before him as Xero reaches up and grasps Konner’s weapon. Dauntingly taunting Konner at his failure to Kill him, Xero pulls the glowing blade from his chest.

  “You think your puny weapons can kill me boy?”

  His voice is saturated in an evil so dark Konner has never met its equal. A shiver rushes down the prince’s spine sending icy chills throughout his body.

  “Thanks to your father, I cannot die!”

  Xero roars as he stands to his feet, Konner looks over at Xero’s weapon, less than a meter in front of him. Swiftly the new King dives for the blade. Faster than Konner can process what is going on, his vision flashes to a blinding white as a shock surges through his system starting at the top of his skull. Konner falls to the ground having been struck on the top of the head by the hilt of his weapon with the full strength of Xero’s attack. His vision blurred, Konner tries to get up. His mind screaming to his body that does not seem to get the message. As his vision clears he sees Xero marching toward Na’era and Ryan. Panic seizes Konner as he begins to frantically try and move his body. “GET UP! COME ON KONNER MOVE!!!!!” He screams to himself as he tries with all of his might but his body just does not move fast enough. Xero draws back. Time slows down. Konner watches in horror, helpless, as Xero swings Konner’s own weapon at his wife and son. Na’era turns her body; she shields their son from Konner’s blade, without hesitation. The blade passes through her as she falls to the ground lifeless. Ryan sits on the ground crying. A surge of rage consumes Konner like an unbridled inferno. He starts to get up but Xero is too fast, with a swing of his blade a blinding flash of light encompasses the room and Ryan too, is gone.

  The horror that lays strewn before him Konner falls to his knees as his gut wrenches unyieldingly within him. His heart stops at the sight before him. He is unable to move, numb. Xero approaches Konner. Slowly, the deranged attacker reaches forward and grasps Konner by his tattered breastplate. Dauntingly, Xero lifts Konner completely off the ground as if he weighs nothing, and in a voice so twisted, he taunts Konner with his victory.

  “Your planet is mine now boy. Your people are mine. And finally, after all these millennia I will have my vengeance on your father’s exile.”

  Konner’s senses snap back to him. The spark of Xero’s words re-ignites the inferno within Konner. Reaching forward he grabs Xero’s wrist. Looking down at the would be tyrant, Konner laughs as a dark thought enters his mind.

  “You cannot kill me, not here Xero because if you do I will crack. If I crack this planet will be reduced to ash and YOU, YOU WILL GET NOTHING!”

  Konner shakes with rage as he looks the physical embodiment of death in the face as the prophecy begins to make sense to Konner. Should the new High King fall today and Boron survive the entire universe is at risk. If Konner would sacrifice his own people, then the lives of countless others will be saved. With no other choice, this choice is an easy one. With a smirk on Konner’s bloodied face, he taunts Xero right back.

  “You know what that means don’t you.”

  Xero drops Konner. Turning the intruder bends down, picks up his own weapon in his free hand and re-sheaths it. Slowly Xero turns back around. Konner’s weapon shifting from a sword to a spear.

  “I may not be able to kill you with my weapon, but tell me Konner Lorian, will you crack for yours?”

  A wicked grin falls upon Xero’s face. He moves to stab the spear through Konner’s chest. Quickly Konner throws up his hand to create a shield but is not fast enough to fully generate it. The spear glances off of the energy shield. Konner feels a white hot heat pierce his side, the soldier stops, his arms fall to his sides, limp. Looking down Konner sees the spear has skewered him almost clean through. The King reaches forward, he grabs the spear and in a raging defiance he overpowers Xero’s thrust and wrenches the spear from his gut. His vision begins to blur as Konner starts to lose consciousness. The room slowly fills with the shadow monsters that are at Xero’s bidding. “Don’t let him win Konner, not like this!” Konner thinks to himself. As fast as his body will allow him, Konner reaches for his bracer. He presses a number of glowing glyphs. The Lorian family crest begins to glow and before Xero can stop Konner, the glyph is pressed.

  “NO!”

&n
bsp; Xero roars. He leaps toward Konner who feels a massive amount of energy drain from his body before violently erupting from within with such force he feels as if his body is being ripped apart. Having been harmed by his own weapon, Konner is unable to activate the full power of a ‘Crack’ but with his bracer’s aid maybe, just maybe he can draw up enough of one to kill Xero. Konner lets out a primal roar in agonizing pain as a fraction of the radiation he has been absorbing his entire life is violently ripped from his body and concentrated into a single, white hot explosion. The blast incinerates the shadow creatures and everything else in the immediate vicinity, Konner sees Xero being blasted away from him with such force that no one could survive it. The explosion encompasses the entirety of the palace, effectively destroying it. As the light fades, Konner looks around at the rubble near him, his bracer blinking a warning at 2% power. The gravely injured soldier tries to get up but falls over. Slowly he stumbles forward to where Na’era had fallen. The intensity of the blast has removed all traces of her. Within the pile of ash Konner sees something gleams. Reaching down, the rapidly weakening High King grabs a white piece of metal that is formed into a small circle, waves of tiny diamonds swirl around the small ring until they reach the main, soft yellow stone at the top. His mother’s wedding ring. It had been given to Na’era as a one year anniversary gift and although he never loved her in the way of a husband, he still loved Na’era as a friend and mother of his son. A sharp pain radiates up Konner’s side like lightning. He winces and Konner tries to climb to his feet but collapses. Breathing heavily a soft rumble catches the gravely injured man’s ears.

  Konner peers over a tiny portion of destroyed wall. In a cliff face is a large hole made from Xero’s impact. The rocks move slightly. Konner’s heart drops. The stone face falls away to reveal Xero standing within the crater, breathing heavily, uninjured from Konner’s most powerful attack. Xero lets out a roar that shakes the ground and leaps into the air toward the fading Konner. Without a moment’s hesitation, Konner slams his hand into his bracer and activates the teleporting sequence. Focusing his blurring vision on Xero rather than his thoughts on a location, Konner is pulled into a portal along with a majority of what remains of the palace. Everything goes dark.

  Heat, this is the first thing Konner feels, an all-encompassing heat that surrounds his body like nothing he has ever felt before. Soft beeps echo past the roaring blaze that accompanies the rapidly increasing temperature. The beeping is familiar; it’s the sound of his bracer being charged at an accelerated rate. Still weary from the battle and his grievous wounds, Konner’s eyes wearily flutter open as the heat is rapidly replaced by the frigid cold. Something new grasps Konner, a familiar sensation. It takes a few moments for his mind to process the sensation, weightlessness. The fallen King forces his eyes open as the roar of wind fills his ears. It is dark but mist sprays Konner’s face as he passes through a floating white tuff of cotton. Konner begins to struggle slightly as he emerges from the far side of the cloud but the wound on his side sends jolts of paralyzing pain surging throughout his body as he drifts in and out of consciousness, heading toward fully awake.

  Konner looks down, weary and broken, both physically and mentally, bites his lower lip and gives out a loud whistle. After a few seconds he hears nothing. The darkened ground comes into view below him and he sees a structure made from wood and metal, unlike anything on Boron. Quickly Konner realizes Drakesjäl is not coming. He attempts to form a shield around himself. The azure light sputters briefly for a moment around him but the pain in his side prevents him from concentrating enough to generate the protective barrier. Konner, unable to create a layer of protection leans to his right as hard as he can in an attempt to control his unyielding descent. Below the seemingly unending plains of dust stretch out in all directions; the road, consisting of strange materials, as well as the building, illuminated by antiquated lights in the strangely pitch black darkness, rapidly approaches the falling King.

  As Konner grows closer a melody cuts through the noise of the wind, accompanied with a woman’s voice; the structure is not empty. Ignoring the pain in his side, Konner struggles to change his course through the air as he has already met terminal velocity and would be upon the ground in a matter of seconds. Konner turns his back to the ground and closes his eyes with the expectation that when he hits everything will go blank forever. So long as the one below him is not harmed the defeated King is ok with that. As he gets closer the woman’s voice becomes audible and cuts through the noise of the wind; the voice of an angel, singing, oblivious to the impending disaster.

  “Plain ‘ol Jane told a story ‘bout a man who was to afraid to fly so he never did land…”

  A shock rips through Konner’s body with a thunderous violence; the sweet care-free voice of the woman is replaced by the loud, violent explosion of wood, glass and metal as Konner slams through the roof of the building. Another, more definitive shock rips through Konner’s body, his eyes still shut as his descent has been stopped by the planet beneath him. Konner feels a surge of energy leave him and enter his bracer which emanates away from him in a single, powerful, pulse upon contact. Coming to a halt the wind is forced from his lungs as the Earth gives way under the force of his landing. Chest burning as Konner gasps for air, his side spasms with the pain of being run through and his head pounding from the impact, Konner slowly allows his eyes to flutter open. Miraculously, somehow, he survived. Konner looks down at his blood soaked hand. Ever so slowly he wiggled each one of the five fingers, counting off as each individual moves. Gradually he looks at his second hand and repeats the process. “All ten fingers are moving, good.” Looking down at his boots Konner tells his feet to move. If he weren’t gasping helplessly for air, Konner would be holding his breath. Both feet move. A smile would form on Konner’s face at this point in time, but the pain that echoes throughout his body prevents that from happening.

  Konner slowly twists himself over in the crater he has made. Sparks fly from above him from the shattered building which mostly stands erect thanks to Konner’s attempt to miss it. Konner plants his hand at the top of the crater. His muscles sore, his bones aching, his chest burning, Konner’s eyes flair azure blue with energy as every atom of his body languishes in pain. The pain is so encompassing, so complete Konner does not realize that Na’eras wedding gift not with him but rather remained in the dirt. The fallen King attempts to orient himself. Searching for the source of the melodious voice, he turns and faces the inside of the building. In an instant, Konner’s pain melts away as he sees a beautiful strawberry-red haired woman with smooth radiantly white skin, cowering under a table. A gash is on her forehead, a face fraught with fear and a piece of wood covered in blood lying next to her bleeding stomach. Konner’s family crest flickers out. The vision of the injured woman distracts him so much he does not notice his cape fall from his shoulders.

  Guilt wracks Konner. While he is a soldier and has witnessed truly horrid events, never before has he been responsible for the injury of an innocent. Konner shakes his head in remorse as a weak, nearly broken voice echoes from his lips.

  “I am so sorry.”

  Konner hardly notices a soft white light begin to emanate from his hands and radiate up his arms before evaporating into the air like a white flame. Konner’s eyes notice that the gash on the woman’s forehead slowly begins to heal until there is no mark of the injury, only soft, flawless skin back where it should be. For a brief moment, Konner forgets about his own injuries, until a sharp pain sticks him in the side. The light dissipates almost instantly as the shock sends Konner to one knee.

  “Gahhaha, Bracer, I need medical attention.”

  The bracer responds instantly.

  “The science on this planet is too primitive to heal your wounds, Sol 3’s white sun can increase metabolic rate and heal your wounds, recommend proceeding to a well-lit area.”

  “Sol 3?” When Konner hears the name he smiles. His entire life he has wanted to visit this planet and now he is
here, where he can grow stronger before returning home to free his people.

  “Then take me to sunlight.”

  Konner commands. The bracer automatically triggers a portal to open in a flash of fiery blue light which swallows Konner into the darkness between locations. Within moments a pinprick of white light catches Konner’s attention; rapidly it grows as it gets closer. A pleasantly warm heat emanates from the now blinding light as it begins to encompass Konner in a blissful intensity.

  The End

  Epilogue

  Konner Lorian will return in a quest to return home and free his people but will he have to commit to this task alone? In the meantime a series of chronicles have been discovered that peek into the history of the mysterious figure known as Xero, the source of the ‘Darkness’ everyone seems to fear.