He was just as I remembered him.
Never could I forget that day when I was "collected".
It was the day of my scheduled execution. The renegades and rioters of the country had finally gotten their hands on me and had planned to kill me in front of all that were present.
Quite a gathering there was. I had never seen that many people in the marketplace ever since the day of my coronation. To think that the same people that watched me cheerfully during the relaying of my crown, were now doing exactly the same at the offing of my head.
But who could blame them. I never gave the people enough reason to like me anyway. After King Grivelkoriah, the expectations of our duties surely rose. No ruler was ever like him and there would never be the same either.
To top it off, I could classify myself as barely qualified when compared to his legacy.
It was truly ironic being the one looking from the perspective of the to-be-executed for once. Standing before the altar, on which I have stood beside for many years now, about to be done exactly as most of my subjects…karma sure returns favours very coldly.
I was ready regardless of what fate awaited me. I did not struggle when I was being chained in front of the chopping block. There was no use anyway.
I knelt willingly and exposed my neck to them.
I heard them screaming with celebration, "Off with the King!" Knowing this, it was even harder to ponder under the shadow of the sword, knowing I had failed to perform my oath.
My time was done. Eventually, there would be another king or perhaps none at all. But I had nothing to do with it anymore. For one last time, I could only wish this once beautiful country the best of hopes…
In my moment of weakness, I turned to praying. One thing I did not believe in during my lifetime.
Even death did not welcome me into its embrace that day. It was as if both this world and the next were rejecting me for some reason.
I would still be praying had I not heard the gasps of terror ensuing among the mass. For a second there, I had thought my saviour to have arrived. But my expectations were far from realistic.
Lifting my gaze towards the sky, where everyone else's sights were petrified to, I saw what looked like the mustering of a million stars cramped into a singular form. It was the middle of the day mind you.
A dark veil hovered above, riddled with red brumes and black fumes. Countless upon countless of lights flickered within its robes of skies and gave an unnatural feeling of distress.
A face's image emerged from beyond the roaring clouds and sparked two red flaming eyes. They rebounded with luminosity, blinding the whole that looked at it within that moment.
A hand also materialized and reached down from the sky and unto the ground.
While they ran and panicked, the whole stage I was upon was wrenched from the soil and carried away to where I am now.
The tale of how King Akilaba got abducted by a god! I never did hear that one afterwards. I presume it must have been quite a funny tale for children's books. Though I do think my executioners were not quite thrilled to be deprived of their vengeance.
(But, moving on…)
The same god that appeared before me back then, 34599 years ago, did so today as well.
We were not instructed to be quiet. It wasn't necessary to be honest. With each step he took, a voice whispered silence in our minds.
He was towering. He was humungous during my execution, but the form he took upon today was nonetheless gigantic compared to us.
Demonic God was an entity resembling a direct cut from the heavens. As I described him afore, his form was that of a starry space, meddled with a red brume.
All the torturers, fell to the floor almost impossibly at the same time. They did not kneel so simply. They bowed so low that their heads touched the ground in reverence.
Even after he walked past us, the torturers did not raise themselves until he climbed unto a higher platform.
"We greet Demonic God!" they all hummed in unison, their hands clapping on the floor.
"Rise" he said, sliding down in the middle of the air as if there was a seat.
Instinctively, (and I'm not glorifying the scene) all seven of us kings bent sideways, actually checking if there was no chair beneath him. And indeed there wasn't…we gulped too loudly.
His subjects were allowed back on their feet.
Another individual popped out of the blue with a cracking sound. It was as if he suddenly teleported or something. This face was also one I had seen before.
Great Demigod!
"Big brother!" he nodded slightly as a sign of respect.
Demonic returned the gesture, "Luo! Glad you could make it. Stand beside me" ushering to the empty spot to his right, on the raised platform. Luo, Demigod's name apparently, did as requested without saying anything and faced us too. His eyes were as glaring as the day he came to my cave…he must be against the whole exoneration or something.
(Which would be perfect actually!)
"Seventh!" as Demonic called me. He turned attention to me once he was done with Luo. "You look quite well. These years have been good for you? Like it here?"
He gawked at me with incentive red irises.
I wasn't sure if it was sarcasm or if he was genuinely asking if this hell was any good, but I couldn't lie to his face…he was a god after all.
"They haven't. But I've grown accustomed" I flipped the hair over my face so he could see my eyes clearly. The eyes could tell much more than the words.
"Insignificant mortal! You dare speak so casually in front of—"
"That's quite alright Luo. Akilaba is not bound to my will and does not need to address me properly. But enough with small talks" he quickly interrupted Demigod and began directly with the context in mind.
We were called here to be exonerated in the end.
"These past few years I've been—" he stopped for it was me who interrupted him this time.
"Please reconsider!" I could only say blatantly and without excusing myself for the sudden interruption.
He did not answer me directly. His palms were seen struggling to find a good grip of some unseen object.
Something snapped in that instance.
"Please reconsider your decisi—" I was going to repeat my words but I was not allowed to this time.
"WHO…"
The room quaked at the rumble of his voice. It was so loud that the guards stationed outside, entered the hall thinking an intruder had mysteriously found his way into Kazalkar.
Crimson fumes, matching the columns' tint, erupted from his robe of stars and broadened around the room. My feet began wriggling on their own, acknowledging the threat before me.
His form elongated, reaching the top of the ceiling in a matter of seconds. Right now, he pretty much resembled the god I saw back in the day. The same monstrosity that scooped me up from the earth and carried me all the way to these infernal mountains.
A column cracked and fell with a deafening sound, splintering the marble floor underneath its fall. The place in itself kept shaking violently that the walls gave in and threw away with rubble.
A piece of the mosaic fell off and the depicted beast looked like it had a hole in its chest as of now.
It might be too late to have noticed it right now, but I may have taken his earlier kindness for granted and overstepped my boundaries slightly…or a little more than that.
(In short…I may have fucked up…public speaking skills my ass!)
"B-Brother!" Luo gave a try at calming him down.
But Demonic God did not waver in his anger. He kept throwing pressure down our way that the one emitted by Demigod early this day felt like a child's aura in comparison.
We were pinned to the ground. We felt like snails. Sluggish and bearing an overburdening weight upon our backs, unable to move properly. Breathing was even difficult at this point.
"WHO ALLOWED YOU TO SPEAK WHILE I DID, AKILABA!" another column fell after that sentence. He swung his hand and knocked a few other pillars himself too. "DO YOU CONSIDER ME SO LOWLY THAT YOU ALLOW YOURSELF TO INTERRUPT MY WORDS!!!"
Although it was not the time now, I should say that after he said this, a sweeping wind struck me…and it felt rather good…
(…)
"C-Calm down, brother!" Luo was about to be swept off his feet, being the closest to him. "I'll educate this mortal later for you…but please calm yourself…"
Demonic looked towards his little brother and saw that he too was struggling to keep himself steady. Realising what he has done due to his reaction, his presence alleviated itself exponentially and his size reducing itself back to normal.
The hall calmed down. The ceiling trembled no longer. The walls ceased to shudder and crumble apart. And the floor steadied.
I only noticed it after Demonic God calmed down, that including us kings, the torturers and Demigod were affected by his rising pressure. He was genuinely pissed off at my intervention.
Our breathing came back normally to us after the weight was lifted from the atmosphere.
From the corner of my eye, after I regained my composure, I saw Izaresius slip the mosaic's tesserae underneath his clothes. I was not sure why though.
Demonic, acting as if naught had happened, adjusted his seating and cleared his throat before carrying on with his earlier talk.
On another note, it seemed I have failed to stop the exoneration from happening. Unfortunately, I will have to take the matters into my own hands when we are released…how I wished not to take back the road of blood again…
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted" he shot me a disdainful gaze upon which I prostrated to avoid cracking. "In the past few years, I've been browsing through the different dimensions and came upon a peculiar timeline…"
Dimension? Timeline?
What was he on about? I bet all of us were hearing gibberish right now.
True enough, none of us kings understood his…statement just now. Hell, even the torturers did not.
"In that world, there was a game played by humans where there would be one person acting as a master while the rest are players. The master creates a fictional world, a setting and a story for them and throws random encounters for the players to play and solve."
The torturers were quite baffled by that piece of information. After he finished speaking, they chatted between themselves. Demigod though, did not indulge in the same pleasantness and directly asked him.
"But brother…" his tone sounding nothing like all the times he has been speaking before. "What does this have to do with the kings' release? I dare not ask if it wasn't this important" he added the last part after realizing his big brother had thrown a suspicious look at him.
He chuckled softly.
He got up from his invisible seat, hands open wide. He had no mouth on his face, but you could imagine one nasty grin. His chuckles turned to laughter and became almost manic.
"Is it not obvious?" Demonic looked at us with expectations.
We shrugged nervously, unsure if our answer would anger the entity.
"No?" his mood worsened. "Well. Allow me to enlighten you all!"
We braced ourselves. Whatever he might have to say…it could change anything and everything. My plans could be ruined for all I know.
Truth be told, my assumptions were not far.
"We are going to play that game!"
What…