GODS OF ASEROTH: The Prodigal Son: A monster is born (9 page)

    
The shadowy figure walked up to him and tried to move that smoke to see his face but all of his tries were futile. When he finally realized that no matter how much he tried the smoke was not going away, he simply began talking “Join me, and all your desires shall be fulfilled.”

    
“I am the prince of all gods, what do you have to offer me?”

    
“If you do not join me, you will only gain control over Thraenus and Aseroth, but if you join me, I can give you control over the entire Universe. There are other worlds that you can conquer, such as Earth.”

    
Leosher listened to him but thought he was bluffing “How can I trust you?”

    
“I have no reason to prove anything to you. I am doing a favor” said he “All you have to do is give me control over your mind and soul. I can unlock your inner beast.”

    
Leosher smiled again “Why does a shadowy figure want control over me? Why my mind? Why not somebody else?”

    
When Leosher said that, the figure’s eyes opened wide and produced and sharp beam of red light that woke him up.

    
He was lying in the same position, near the fire but something seemed different. There were shadows around him and when he finally got up to see what was going on, he was surrounded by men, not his own, but somebody else’s. Leosher quickly got up and got ready to battle “What is the meaning of this?”

    
Then a man came from between the men. He was wearing eerie clothes. He was wearing a mermaid’s skin’s jacket and was looking like he had not showered in months. He also had a long thick and very dirty beard. He wore leather pants and high boots. His teeth were yellow and had a curved sword in his hand. He also wore a laced white shirt which was no longer white because he had never washed it.

    
“You will be held captive if you do not tell us who you are?” He said.

   
Leosher laughed at him “I am the prince of the gods of Aseroth, the rightful ruler of Thraenus, Leosher you ignorant fool.”

    
“Oh so you are the son of Asurot,” said the man, “Well then prove it!”

    
Leosher took the Scythe that Arusus had given him and held it tight “How many are going to fight me?” he asked “I have to know.”

    
The man laughed “I have plenty of men and at least 3 quarters of them will fight you.”

    
Three quarters of his men were almost the size of his own army. Leosher looked around and smiled and got ready to battle. He put the blade of his Scythe down in the fire and suddenly, flicked it. The ashes and sparks from the fire blinded many of the men around him and this marked the beginning of the battle. He spun the Scythe in a spiraling motion and killed many.

    
He was brutal; he took their heads off in one blow. There were bodies and heads lining up everywhere. The beach was covered in puddles of blood and the entire atmosphere suddenly turned grim. The giant empty ships in the sea made it even grimmer.

    
The Scythe was extremely powerful and proven to be a great companion to Leosher. He killed everyone who battled him with the help of the scythe and just when he was about to kill the leader, the man yelled “Stop! Stop!—okay, you win, you are Leosher, the son of Asurot, the prince of all gods—I believe you.”

    
Leosher stopped and took a deep breath and when he looked around he sighed “What have I done? What has become of me?”

    
Though he was becoming evil, there still was some good and humanity left in him but it was of no use now. He had done what he had done and there was no going back.

     “
Although you have killed 3 quarters of my men, you have proven that you are a god.”

    
“Who are you?”

    
“I am Barian,” said the man “a pirate who steals booty from trade ships of Gelus and Strinthius, and a mermaid hunter.”

    
“Really?” said Leosher “Can you help me then?”

    
“Yes my lord, what is it?”

    
“I want those,” Leosher said while pointing at the gigantic ark-like galleons “I want your ships and your crew to take me to the hidden valley.”

    
Barian looked at his ships and then back at Leosher and smiled “I know everything about the Big Sea and know about your quest. I would like to join the King of The Empire.”

     “Yes, you can, now bury your men and order the rest to get ready.
”

    
After they were done talking, Barian ordered his men to give a proper burial to the bodies of the fallen and they did just as he said and right after they were done, Leosher’s men came too. They had brought all the wood necessary for a big ship, a galleon. Virgil, seeing that his brother is surrounded by strange men, ran towards him to help him with his axes drawn and his self, ready to battle. Usere and Urey followed him but then Leosher stop them “It is alright. They are friends.”

    
“Well then how do you explain the puddles of blood on the ground?” asked Usere “And the blood stains on your Scythe” added Urey.

     “I got involved in a feud n
othing big.”

    
Leosher looked at Virgil after he was done talking to Usere and Urey “I have arranged ships for us. We do not need to do make them anymore.”

     
Barian smiled to show that he was offering it with pleasure and introduced himself to all 5 of the main warriors and then informed Leosher “We will be sailing tonight. Get your men on the ships and get ready to go.”

    
Leosher nodded and yelled out “Everyone, on the ships, now! We are going to the hidden valley.”

    
His men were a little angry and disappointed, because they had been working as hard as they could hours and they had cut down so many trees to get the necessary wood and wasted so many axes, but alas they could not do anything about it. It was Leosher’s orders and no one could go against or express their feelings about them. They all quickly dropped everything and packed up their armory and their provisions and took the lions, tigers, rhinos and elephants, and boarded the ships.

    
Leosher knew that his men were disappointed but he did not care and went to Barian to tell him the route “We sail over the mermaid waters, now let us sail.”

    
He boarded the main and the biggest ship in the fleet. The ships were light brown in color and huge. Their sails were black with a huge skull on them. On the edges of all the ships, were harpoons to hunt and destroy ships. The front of the ships was armored and had a metal ram. This was to protect the ships from damage while they rammed and destroyed their enemy ships. The ships’ bowsprits were like arrows, they were made of iron and bronze. The ships also had large pedals. Each ship had 6 pedals on each side and the pedals were made of oak wood to give them more buoyancy. The ships were amazing and though they had gone through a lot of abuse over the years they had been used, they were in great shape.

    
Virgil, Usere, Urey, Azar and Neiham saw Leosher board the biggest galleon and they followed him up there and just when all had boarded and none was left on the shore, Barian began sailing and soon they were sailing over the deep waters, for the ships were incredibly fast and had great maneuverability.

    
Leosher went up to Barian, who was steering the ship with the large wheel on the far end of the deck “How long have you been hunting mermaids?”

    
“It is a long story” replied Barian “I will tell you later sometimes.”

    
“I have plenty of time because we are not going to be reaching our destination until a few days have passed, so you might as well tell it to me right now.”

    
Barian finally agreed and began telling the story,

    
“It was a long, dark and stormy night. It was about 25 years ago, when I was a young man of course. I was a fisherman and fished with my young son. That night, we had been out, fishing for a long time and we had accidentally sailed into the mermaid waters, when suddenly, a storm struck, leaving our boat incapacitated. Our pedals broke and our sails were ripped. It was devastating. There was lightning and thunder and rain everywhere. It was foggy and hard to see and the boat was rocking too much. Even standing still in the boat was a struggle.

    
Just as I was trying to get our boat steady, I saw a dark creature lurking in the water. It was hard to see but it looked somewhat like a mermaid. It swam under our boat and just as I went to the side to see it clearly, it came from the side and took my son. It took it deep inside the waters and I was left alone. The only thing I saw afterwards was a swarm of mermaids running towards where my son fell and then there was blood everywhere. It made the waters murky. I jumped in the water to get my son but something knocked me on the head and knocked me unconscious. Next day, I woke up on the shores of Gelus, helpless and childless and hungry. That was the day when I vowed to kill every mermaid.”

    
“Well that was sad,” said Leosher while giving his condolences to him with a straight face “If you need anything, I would like to give it to you.”

    
“Well, you already told us to go to the mermaid waters, which is a gift for me. I usually avoid going there and hunt stray mermaids instead because I am scared they might outnumber and kill me, but with you at my side, no one can even touch us.”

    
Leosher smiled and walked into the bed chamber that Barian had provided for his king. He sat there on the hard and somewhat wet bed, tired. He was so tired that soon he fell asleep. After a few hours, he suddenly woke up with a shudder and when he got up, there was yelling on the deck of the ship. It was rocking violently and there were thrashing and crashing noises outside. He quickly got out of his bed chamber and saw that a violent creature had wrapped its tentacles around one of the ship and was crushing it. All the other ships were harpooning it but then he saw that there was something holding the beast from crushing the ship he himself was on. It was Virgil and Azar. They were using magic to hold the creatures off while Urey was continuously shooting arrows in the water to kill it.

    
For some reason, the beast was not showing its face. Leosher could see Usere fighting on one of the other ships, using his sword to cut the tentacles but the tentacles were too big, bigger than the ships, therefore he only managed to make small, pointless cuts on them which did not affect the beast whatsoever. Leosher was in a haze but then suddenly there was a wave of mermaids coming towards them. A wave of spears shot over them, over the ships and hit the beast’s tentacles very accurately. The mermaids had come to rescue the ships from the beast and they were successful. The beast backed away and swam towards the dark and murky waters and soon he was out of sight.

    
Just as Barian saw that the beast had wandered away and the mermaids had arrived, he quickly took his focus off of the beast and pointed his harpoons towards the mermaids. He began harpooning them viciously but Urey ran and grabbed his hands to save them “They were only helping us!”

     Barian did not listen to him and accidentally hit Urey
in the face with the back of a harpoon but Urey did not consider it an accident. He grabbed his bow and smacked Barian in the face so hard that he broke his bow in half. Barian was knocked out by that attack, because the bow was thick yet stretchy wood. He fell off of the ship and into the waters but the mermaids caught him and kept him afloat.

     All was calm and still
now but then suddenly, the calm, placid waters began to ripple and the king of the mermaids rose out of them. When he got out of water, his tail and fins became legs and some of the water became a loincloth around his waist. He had a crown and two golden spears in his hands. The water became steps and he boarded the ships. He looked at Leosher and began talking “Are you the Empirion king, everyone has been talking about?”

    
“Yes,” replied Leosher “I am the Empirion king. What do you want?”

    
“I am Lampus, the king of the mermaids and the sea, the only place which is not ruled by the evil lords of the land, and I would like your help.”

    
“What is in it for me? What do I gain by helping you?” asked Leosher demandingly.

    
“You will be rewarded heavily.” But then he stopped for a moment and looked around and then fixed his eyes on Leosher again “Would you consider going beneath the waters with me?”

     
“Yes, but my friends will join me.”

    
Leosher called Virgil, Urey, Azar, and Neiham and he also called Usere from the other ship. When he was done calling his friends, Lampus gave Leosher a Talisman “I only have one, because this is the Talisman of Remases, the god of sea. It will help you breath underwater.”

    
“What of my companions?”

     “Ah yes, your companions,
” He looked at a beautiful mermaid and she brought red rose-like flowers out of the sea and handed it to Lampus who in turn told them to eat the flowers. The flowers were bitter and juicy but they had to eat them and just as they did, they were given the ability to breath underwater. When all were ready, they jumped in water, alongside their king, and swam into the city of the mermaids and towards the inner city. The city was lavish and beautiful. They used a lot of glass and gold. The dry land creatures, Leosher and the others were quite astonished by the sight of this city but they were not here for a vacation.