Conclave of Tyrants: Zion, The Ambivalence of a King

Chapter 1- I Am A King!

The moment she did I noticed there was an ever so slight change in our surroundings. This made me stare quite a bit at the closed door. "I see your senses are quite sharp, you seem to have noticed that we are now in a different location. Good, this makes what I have to say easier". A voice I was unfamiliar with spoke with a French accent. It took about 2 seconds for what she said to click in my mind. Then I shifted my gaze to the woman in front of me. Black hair, black eyes, very pale skin that made me think of porcelain. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties. She was wearing a gray suite with what looked like a pearl neck lace.

She then spoke. "Firstly let me introduce myself, my name is Elizabeth Thompson the third, Eli for short. Secondly welcome to Argos, last but not least the young lady who brought you here is Gail. Gail greet our friend here Alec."

"Hi Alec, I"m Gail nice to meet you" then she winked.

Alec, she just called me Alec.

"Argh!" I shouted at the top of my voice. A massive headache ran through my head. "Make it stop! Make the damn pain stop!" I shouted. "I"m afraid I can"t do that Alec. This is your first test. Either give in to the pain and die or you can fight it and see what happens. The choice is yours" said Eli.

"That"s not a fair choice you b***h! Argh!" I fell of the chair and started rolling on the floor in agony. The pain was too much, I couldn"t bear it. It was a pain I had physically never felt before so it was hard to describe. I"m not even sure if it was physical. The moment I was about to give up I heard a voice in my head. It said " Is this your resolve? Are you so weak as to give in to a meager amount of pain? Are you not a man? Are you not a Warrior? ARE YOU NOT A KING?"

The word king echoed through my head.

That"s right I"m a king. I cannot be defeated in such a pathetic manner.

I stood up slowly, sat back in my chair, placed both elbows on the table, made a fist with one hand and covered it with the other and placed my hands under my chin. I looked up at the woman and said in a calm and well-toned voice "Woman, end this pain or I will end you".

The moment I said this, my side of the table cracked with hundreds of seams. The woman who calls herself Eli then said "There is no need to. You seem to have broken the spell yourself." The moment she said this I realized that the pain was gone. I felt relieved; however all of a sudden I felt strength leaving my body and my vision went black.

...

When I opened my eyes, I felt an odd sensation at the back of my neck. A sort and warm sensation I had never felt before. Ah this is the world"s best pillow. Looking up I realized that a face was looking down on me from my right hand side. It was Gail. Ah bless her soul. She must have been worried about me. She then opened her mouth. "Um can you please wake up? My thighs are getting numb".

Thighs?

The gears in my mind started moving.

Don"t tell me this is the legendary Japanese lap pillow! Wow I have only seen this in anime or manga. To think it actually exists. Ah one more thing to remove from my bucket list.

I got up (rather unwillingly) and said thank you to Gail. It seems we were still in the same room so I went back to my chair in a rather confused manner and faced Eli.

She said " It seems you enjoyed your little nap Alec. How did Gail"s lap feel? I ordered her to do it. As a special service to you of course."

This b***h.

I then spoke "Firstly my name is Alex not Alec, secondly I don"t need any service from you. Last but not least why the heck am I here?"

Yes that"s right, I remembered my name. I remembered everything. My background my history everything. It seems whatever was holding me back from remembering was temporary or had been broken.

I bet this woman had something to do with it as well.

"Yes I know who you are. Your name is Alexander Kudakwashe Chikosi. You"re a seventeen year old African American who learns at Western Point High. Your IQ is 130, your favorite sport is soccer, your favorite food is ramen, your type of woman is a short slim girl with wide hips and an I beg your pardon...ehem big ass. Now then I could waste valuable time saying other things you already know or I could get down to business. You decide".

I was shocked. This felt like scene from a very cliche action movie. In order to understand my current situation I decided to be as concise as possible and said "Since you know so much about me then explain who you are and why I am here." Eli then replied "Very well then let me begin with who we are, or rather what we are. Before I can explain that there are a few facts you need to understand."

I nodded my head then she continued "This world isn"t the one you know, or rather it is not as it seems. Myths, legends and folklore. Many of these are actually based on true events. This world is full of beings you thought were merely created from tales. These include: werewolves, goblins, elves, dragons, chimeras, demons, vampires and so on and so forth. However the most important aspect of our world that you did not know of is the existence of cultivation, the process of acquiring mana, the energy that forms the foundation of what you call magic."

This woman is nuts. Is she serious?

She then continued "If you don"t believe me then explain why you were suddenly in an office floor when you were in a dark corridor. I am quite sure that you opened the door that you came through only to realize that there were more offices behind you. That was teleportation. When you entered this boardroom you noticed the surroundings outside this room change right? I saw you look around with a disturbed expression on your face."

Damn she has a point.

Then I retorted " This could be some advanced form of hypnotism." Then Eli replies " Then maybe you can explain how you cracked this table and this entire room" I looked at the table and realized that not only was the table cracked, but the fissures spread across the floor to the wall extending to the roof. I wanted to retort by saying she did this but somehow in the back of my mind I knew that I had done this. In order to fight back I said "Ignoring the room this table looks quite fragile, it could have cracked like this from anyone leaning on it."

Then Eli said "This table is reinforced with magic, it"s impossible to harm it simply through blunt force. If you don"t believe me try it yourself." I stood up and decided to test her statement. I took one of the fragile looking chairs and decided to slam it on to the table.

If the table breaks it"s your fault you insane woman.

I lifted up a chair and slammed it against the table as hard as I could. It was on that day that I knew true pain. It felt like taking a metal baseball bat and hitting a concrete wall. The force of the impact transferred to my hands. I fell on the floor rolling and whilst holding my wrist in pain and shouted "You b***h! What did you do?" Eli feigned a gasp and said "Oh my. Did I forget to mention that the chair is also reinforced with magic? How silly of me. I must apologize."

Apologize my ass! The b***h is smiling!

This was the most condescending smile I had ever seen. It made me want to smash her face in. The moment I thought this the pain in my wrist started fading. I slowly got up and sat back on the chair.

Impossible, magic is real? Wait so if magic is real how did I break the table? Not only that what was that voice in my head?

My mind was saturated with questions I could not answer. Noticing my confused expression Eli spoke "It seems you have a lot of questions, calm yourself because I will answer them in due course, for now allow me to finish my explanation. Due to the existence of these mythical creatures which we refer to as dangerous or hazardous creatures, dohcs for short, there is a need to organize humans with the capabilities to battle them. It is for that purpose that guilds are created. We are the battle guild Argos. Our purpose is to protect those who cannot protect themselves against these creatures. We consist of many talented individuals who work together towards one common goal. Now then any questions so far?"

I replied "Just one. Why am I here?" Then Eli replied" Ah yes I was getting to that. Recently there was an incident where some of our members were sent to the scene of a battle. We did not know who or what was fighting, we only knew that those involved were very powerful as their battle destroyed a skyscraper in the process. When we arrived at the site there was only one survivor in the rubble and that was you. In a situation where no human being should have survived you were practically unharmed except for severe fatigue.

Not only that but I sensed no mana in your body so I assumed there must have been someone there who had saved you but I"m beginning to doubt that. A few seconds ago you emitted so much mana it cracked a room fitted with high level reinforcement magic. Now please explain yourself."