GODS OF ASEROTH: The Prodigal Son: A monster is born (5 page)

    
“Do you have any weapons?”

    
“Yes sire, just a sword for my protection.”

     
Now, Urey got his arrows ready and Virgil got his battle axes ready. Azar put his staff on the ground and got ready for heavy attack and the tension increased by every second.

     “D
o you have any money?” asked the leader.

    
“Yes sire.” 

     
Usere took out a ragged pouch, out of his pocket and he also took out his sword. He placed the pouch on the tip of the sword and pointed the sword towards the leader to offer the money. Though he was covered in heavy armor from top to bottom, there were some spots left unprotected like his hands and his throat, which were the areas Usere aimed on.

    
The leader moved forward to grab the pouch but little did he know he was making a huge mistake. Usere spun the sword in a spiraling motion and cut his hand off and yelled out “NOW!”

     
Virgil jumped on the soldiers and began fighting. Urey began shooting arrows and Azar shot fireballs out of the twisted head of his staff. Neiham took two mud balls out of her pocket and threw them on the ground. The mud balls quickly turned into two clay boars that attacked the soldiers. The beginning of the fight was great but now slowly they were getting overpowered.

      
Virgil was now surrounded by the soldiers and was about to get killed but Leosher, looking out for his brother, took both of his spears and shot them. They both hit their targets. They pierced through the soldiers’ chests and killed them.

    
Now armless, Leosher was bare handed, again, just like he was against the Yeti. Leosher knew he had to help somehow, therefore he improvised and pushed down the heavy tree he was hiding behind. It was hard, for the tree was at least half a century old. He struggled but he did it and the attack wiped out almost half the infantry. Then, Azar, getting tired of all of this, created a giant fiery phoenix out of his staff. The phoenix came out as a ball of fire but slowly gained shape. It was glorious in the dark forest and burnt the soldiers, but there was a downfall to this technique too. The whole forest caught on fire because of the fiery phoenix and now, they were caught in a forest fire.

    
Neiham quickly shouted out “gather around the horses!”

    
Everyone listened to her and stood in a circle around the horses. The hot flashes and the fire were around them and the trees collapsed around them. The forest fire was spreading every second and standing just seemed pointless.

     
“What are we doing just standing around?” asked Leosher anxiously “We can be running and trying to save our lives.”

    
Neiham smiled at him “Son, observe.” She pulled her stack of cards and chose one of them. She put it on her hand and closed her eyes and in an instance, a blue elephant made of water rose up out of the ragged brown card. The elephant levitated in the air until Neiham clapped her hands together without bending her elbows. The elephant suddenly turned into a blob and then into a water bubble and protected them all from the forest fire.

      
Now they were enclosed in a water bubble like a new born’s caul. She then pointed her hands up to the heavens some of the water broke out of the bubble and began pouring down from the sky. The water was endless, it was unlimited. The forest fire died down and everyone was safe now. Neiham let go of the water and soon, the shield turned back into the elephant and the elephant went back into its house, inside the card.

    
“Thank you Neiham” said Leosher “You have saved much of our time.”

    
“That is the reason I brought her with me” Azar smiled proudly “I knew my sister has a lot of skills.” He looked at the sky and then continued talking “Anyways, we should keep on going now.”

    
They got up on their horses and began the journey to the Land of the Dead….

    Just as Azar had told them, there was a beast that lived in the Land of the Dead. The beast was known as Mortemus. She had the body of a spider and the head of a pale woman with green snakes as her hair and dark, all-black eyes. She was hideous and was cursed by the gods to stay there. Whoever looked at her would turn to stone and the soul would stay stuck in the prey’s body.

     
The warriors walked and after going through the grasslands and the mountainous roads, the sky began to go dark. As they walked forward, the sky got darker but the sky they had left behind was fine, there was something wrong with the sky above the Land of the Dead.

     The terrain began
to become harder to travel on and all the live out of everything was slowly fading away. After some time, the whole entire sky became dark. There was fog everywhere and sight was dim. The ground was cold and hard and the atmosphere was very grim.

     As the traveled further, the horses began
to get scared and restless and suddenly, Usere’s horse bumped into something. It was an Orc that had been turned into stone by Mortemus. When all the horses stopped, suddenly, there was a humming sound which slowly transformed into a slight, sweet singing. The voice was sweet and luring and the song was runic. Not even the strongest willed men could resist it but our warriors were doing well so far. They kept their aim at their goal and kept on walking forward, slowly and steadily.

                                               “I have been lonely for too long, come to me.

                                                            
I will give you all you need.

                                         
I will take away your worries and rob you of everything.

                               
Just give me a chance and you shall prevail in eternal happiness.”

    
She sung in her angelic voice and almost lured Leosher. He almost turned around but his brother grabbed his shoulder and kept him going and looking forward.

    
When Mortemus realized that none of her tricks were working, she came and stood in front of them. Luckily, the fog gave the warriors enough time to shut their eyes close. The horses panicked from the surprise and ran as fast as they could and luckily, they didn’t trun to stone but when the horses began running, Leosher fell off of the horse because he wasn’t holding on to Virgil. As he fell on the ground, the others faded away into the fog, without even noticing that they had lost Leosher.

    
He was left all alone to face death itself but luckily he kept his eyes shut. Soon, Leosher could not even hear the sounds of the horses running and that was the sign for him that he was all alone in this fight now and all that Leosher had was one of his spears, for he had lost the other one during the wildfire in the green forest.

     He grabbed
his spear tightly and got ready to battle. He was now totally depending on his hearing and was reacting to every little noise; even his own trembling over rocks would startle him. Then Mortemus sang her song again but this time, Leosher did not react to it at all. Tired of the games, Mortemus stood in front of Leosher with her big black eyes wide open and suddenly, they turned green. She tried to force open the eyes of Leosher but he pushed her away with his godly power.

    
She came towards him again, running, and stabbed him with her leg in his side. Again, that did not force Leosher to open his eyes although the pain made him scream a bit. She pulled her leg out and scratched Leosher’s face with her sharp nails. Leosher was tired of the games therefore he quickly cut her hands with his spear and kicked her in her stomach. She fell far from where he stood which gave him some time to plan a strategy.

    
Mortemus was on the cold, hard ground, groaning and moaning in pain. She did not realize that her moaning and groaning only made it easier for Leosher to locate her. Her noise was getting her closer and closer to her demise. Leosher located her got ready to strike. She continued making noise but little did she know she was just making herself an easy target. Leosher took his spear and shot it at Mortemus. The spear skimmed through the fog and stabbed Mortemus right between her eyes. It went in through from her face and came out from the back of her head and got stuck in the ground.

    
Just as the spear hit her, there was a loud squeaking noise and then there was pin-drop silence. Nothing moved at all except Leosher. The only sounds in the vast emptiness were Leosher’s heavy breathing and dripping of his blood from his side. After a moment, he finally opened his eyes and went to where Mortemus laid dead. All those she had turned to stone, turned back to flesh and the fog faded away and the sky came back to its original color, blue and both of the suns shone bright once again. The entire land was rejuvenated and life was restored to the ground, the trees and everything in sight.

    
Just as everyone was freed, they saw that Leosher had freed them. All of them gathered around him and thanked him, for he had defeated a terror that had reigned for too long. The Orc that Usere’s horse had bumped into, was the scariest of them all. He was big, pale and had dirty teeth. He had no hair on his body and was only wore a loincloth, but he had a sharp broad sword with him. He came to Leosher and began talking

    
“Who are you?”

    
“I am Leosher, the would-be king of The Empire and the son of Asurot.”

    
An old dwarf who listened to him carefully came out from behind the crowd and asked him “What is ‘The Empire’?”

    
“The Empire is the kingdom that will come after I have defeated Geluna. It has already begun and it spans over the outskirts of Gelus but soon, it will rise, rise to be the biggest and the most prosperous kingdom this world has ever seen.”

    
“Well you would need an army” said the Orc “You are going against Geluna, you will need an army.”

    
Leosher smiled “Yes but where can I get an army from?”

    
The Dwarf smiled and pointed to the people from everywhere. It was like rainbow, there were creatures from every species Elves, Dwarfs, Fairies, Amazonians, Humans and all other creatures.

    
The dwarf told him “This shall be your army, my King.” Just as he said that, a hail came out “All hail king Leosher! May The Empire reign!”

     Leosher loved the men praising and t
hat was the point where the seed of greed was sown into his heart. He wanted more and more creatures to hail him and praise him and now he was to do everything he could to make his wish come true.

    
He agreed to them and told them to line up and when the count occurred, there were almost 100 of them. This was a good start for an army for the Empire but it was not enough if he was to defeat all of the rulers. Just as the counting was finished, the original warriors, Virgil and the others, came back too. Virgil quickly jumped off of his horse and ran towards his brother. Just as he was running, the soldiers thought that he was a threat to their king and got ready to battle but Leosher held them off “Stop! He is one of us, my own brother, and your general.”

    
They quickly backed up and Virgil came to Leosher “what is all this?” he asked while pointing at the soldiers and smiling “I left you alone for some moments and you gather a small army? What are you?”

    
Leosher laughed “Brother, they are with us. They are the army of The Empire now.”

    
Azar came up to them too and stood up on a rock and addressed everyone “You all must know that you are not prepared for battle yet. Your weapons are rusted and your armor is rotten. You are weak and weary and are dreary. We set camp here tonight and we wait for our supplies.”

    
Then he walked down to Leosher and whispered to him “Send a letter to Buntius to buy provisions for us and send them here.”

    
Leosher looked at him as if he had done something wrong “I am a king now. I am not to do these petty works. Tell someone else to do so.”

    
Azar smiled and realized that Leosher was slowly changing but he did not pay much attention and looked at Virgil and told him the same thing. Virgil, being the humble one, listened to Azar and wrote a letter. He called upon Azar’s phoenix and tied it the letter to its leg. The phoenix flew away towards the town and after a day’s journey, it reached the town. Buntius read the letter and quickly got up to the task and prepared everything.

    
On the other hand, The Empirion army had set up fire and was resting peacefully. Leosher also sat near a fire on the grass and enjoyed the warmth under the beautiful night sky. It was night time and there was a cool breeze. The soldiers snored and slept peacefully.

     After 4 days, the soldiers were well rested and it was just before dawn. All were asleep, but suddenly, the ground under the beautiful sky
shook violently. When Leosher got up to see what it was, he saw that it was Buntius, riding a sledge. It was being pulled by wild bulls and had a long trailer behind him. These were the provisions for the Empirion army. Soon, everyone woke up and Buntius stopped the sledge right besides Leosher.