As the sun was slowly rising in the distant crimson sky, its radiant showers of light revealing the harrowing depths of the destruction the city had seen in the bleak darkness of the night. Olive was being erased from history by the terrifying force of the three kings of Oakland.
The once majestic towers and grand temples that took decades to build were completely ravaged and decimated into heaps of rubble in a span of just a few hours.
It is indeed hard to build and easy to destroy. The city of Olive is a testament to that. It would surely take a substantial amount of time and a great deal of effort to rebuild it.
Within the embrace of the towering and the once impregnable walls of Olive, Kodesh's unconscious body was gracelessly lugged back towards the center of the city. It looked like fate had its fun with him and now he was to be sacrificed to their perverse gods. That was what the men had sworn to do. Chosen as he was, he would make a really tasty and delicious sacrifice.
Some of the men however, were unnerved by Kodesh. Especially the ones dragging him. For some reason they didn't really want to touch him or even cast a gaze at him. And as if the stern faced lieutenant in charge of them was reading their thoughts , he instructed the two of them to carry Kodesh back towards the city center. Their faces turned sour, fervent emotions coursing through them. But they had to follow orders. It is simple as that.
Giving a quick furtive glance towards Kodesh, they reluctantly picked his weight from the ground and carried him on their shoulders. Well after they made a short prayer to their gods.
One of the two men dragging Kodesh was called Robert. He was a frail and feeble young man. And seemed a lot out of place. He just wasn't cut out to be a warrior. If he was indeed a warrior, he'd be of best use in the kitchen fighting the dirt out of pots.
The stern faced lieutenant was strongly built with dark sunken eyes, a well groomed goatee and long brown hair concealed within his silver helmet of blue plumes. He was in his forties, wearing silver scaled armor and brown leather boots that were still stained with specks of Kodesh's blood.
Within the silver helmet, his ears were shining with golden ear rings worn by those of rank in the army. The two men carrying Kodesh walking closely behind him while 9 others were at the back.
"Did you hear about the men who kidnapped someone marked as chosen?"
A conversation broke at the back.
"Yes I heard that they returned the boy back after they were plagued with tumors and leprosy." The other man with deep set eyes replied with an uneasy tone and he immediately raised his hand to check his skin of any diseases.
"Do you think the stories are true?" Another asked in a wobbly voice.
"Well I guess we will find out." Deepest replied, his tone not as confident as he led them to think he was.
"Anyway what happened to the men who kidnapped him?" Wobbly voiced man asked.
"I hear they returned him back and the tumors miraculously healed and their skin was cleansed." Deepset answered.
The two men carrying Kodesh were already trembling tremendously, quaking in their boots, a cold shiver running up their spine. It seemed they too knew the stories about the chosen. That was why they were reluctant to carry his body.
As they were immersed in the conversations, Kodesh's pendant started to reflect the bright morning sunlight. When the rays illuminated it, a shimmering glow appeared and then vanished as soon as they reached the shade of the towering and grand castles casting deep and long ominous shadows. The pendant was almost like it was charging whenever the blazing light shone on it. Like it was absorbing the rays of the morning light. The same thing repeated again and again until finally the glow didn't fade in the shade. It had fully charged.
Oblivious to the danger, the men continued with their engrossed conversations and out of the blue, the pendant exploded into intense brilliant white light. The otherworldly light of ultraviolet rays rapturing their eye cells and tissues like a blazing fire, blinding the twelve men instantly. The light was so dazzlingly powerful that Kodesh felt it course through his nerves and flash right before his eyes even when they were tightly closed, instantly waking him up.
In the next moment he crashed into the ground. The men carrying him were stunned by the hue of blinding white otherworldly light and they immediately forgot they were carrying his weight.
'Ouch.' He yelped, wincing in pain.
Blinking his eyes open, he felt pangs of pain shooting through his body. But the pain can wait.
Ignoring the pain, his eyes wandered around to glean the situation and to his suprise the dozen men were covering theirs, staggering around like madmen.
'This is my chance.'
Kissing the pendant, he immediately made a break for it, pelting as fast as his body could manage. But before he could stride, a voice echoed behind him.
"Not so fast."
It was the stern lieutenan and though he was blind, it seemed his sentience allowed him to still sense Kodesh and in the next moment he endured the agonizing pain pulsing in his eyes and ran after Kodesh's shadow.
Kodesh had recuperated a bit from his induced slumber. The knockout actually did more good than harm. Except that he had a dented face. He wouldn't mind though considering that the one thing he needed most was once again at his disposal. He had the strength to run as fast as he could. And now with a blind lieutenant tailing him, he fancied his chances even more.
How ever sharp the sentience of the lieutenant was, the fact that he was blind, was going to slow him down. But for some reason, the blind lieutenant was relentlessly pursuing him, hot on his heels like his own shadow.
He had to act fast to get the lieutenant off his trail and with quick thinking, he knocked a log onto the paved street. Immediately the blind lieutenant ran over it, tangled his legs and was sent plummeting face down to the ground, bruising his hands and knees.
The stern faced man gracelessly let out a short shriek and almost instantly cut it half way. It was like the shriek escaped his mouth accidentally and betrayed the strong persona he liked so much to portray.
Ingloriously lifting himself up, he continued to give chase to Kodesh down the streets, but his speed was sluggishly slow since he constantly jumped over imaginary obstacles.
It was just hopeless to chase after him as Kodesh was inching closer and closer to the wall by the second. However, in a way, this was his mess. He kicked Kodesh, knocking him unconscious. And once in the spiritual realm, Kodesh replenished his strength and his injuries stopped bleeding in some kind of ethereal hemostasis. The shallow wounds were even fully repaired in that short time.
It looked like all was lost for the blind lieutenant because Kodesh was just about a hundred meters from the wall, exactly where he had kicked him.
Without any setbacks this time, Kodesh pelted towards the wall. He held on to his pendant and uttered words. Immediately a golden lock appeared on the wall. Reassembling the pendant a few times, it formed a semblance of a key and he ran with all the strength he could muster to reach the wall, all his muscles firing and contracting non stop like he could taste his way out
Was that his plan all along? To unlock the golden lock?
A few moments later he came to a halt at the golden ethereal door, almost crashing into it. Behind him, about 70 meters away, the lieutenant was readying his bow and arrow. He knew it was hopeless to give chase to Kodesh so he opted to use his sentience to locate him with his sentience and strike him with an arrow.
Carefully inserting the key, Kodesh turned it clockwise and nothing happened. The key however threatened to break to pieces. With visible panic he tried again and the key didn't budge, but this time it almost shattered to pieces. He had just one last try left. If he failed, the key was going to shatter along with his plans of escaping.
'Think, think, think!'
Well he didn't have a lot of time to ponder because as he glanced back, a menacing arrow was growing bigger and bigger and that only mearnt one thing. It was drawing nearer by the second and he didn't have any second to spare. He turned the key again, this time anti clockwise like he was locking the door and a sound he never thought he would hear echoed in his ears. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Well it was mostly pleasing to the ear because his life depended on it. He had finally managed to unlock the golden door.
Without a split second to spare he opened the handle and immediately a golden frame formed along the and across the towering wall. Instantly his eyes brightened and a beaming smile spread across his face. He could see a vast expanse of grasslands beyond the door and he quickly leaped in.
But before he could, an explosion rocked behind him, sending him flying.