Magnifico

The fall of Azmak

King Kylian had gone to a pond close to his palace to see how his fishes were when he eventually saw the prime minister of Azmak, Mr. Uz Forlan. Mr. Uz was also trying to see the king and pass the evening at his place because he was feeling lonely at his home. He saw the king close to his pond, where he was feeding his fishes with some nuts and grains. Kylian's pond covered a large area and it made the pond appear like it was a small lake, that houses were built on.

Fishes swim under the houses that were built there to another angle of the backside of the palace. Kylian enjoys the view and loves visiting those fishes every evening if he has nothing serious to do inside the palace. It was quite a nice suiting scenery and a perfect place to relax on any part of the day. The prime minister walked close to the king who was sitting and relaxing near the pond.

“Oh, King Kylian. I was about to visit you, I thought you would be inside the palace. Though I decided to come here because you love visiting here every day.” Prime Minister Uz said as the King turn around to see who was talking to him...

The king was squatting down by the time he heard the prime minister's voice and stood up to greet him too.

“Hey Forlan… you know these things here are now my new family,” Kylian said as he laughs...

“Don’t let your wife hear that from you Kylian" Forlan replied as he laughs too.

King Kylian dismissed the two soldiers that were protecting him; he told them to go take a break so he can have a chat with his friend. The soldiers were dismissed and both of them comfortably sat beside the pond and was watching the fishes swim while they discuss things that mattered to them.

“You know, I was feeling lonely at home. I decided to come to visit you because the whole place was boring to me but checked in the palace and didn't see you so I decided to check here to know if you will be around and have some fun too” Forlan said.

“Oh! I was also in the palace doing nothing too. I had to come to see how my fishes were doing.” Kylian said. They both laughed again.

King Kylian sent for drinks to be served for them there and since it was already getting dark, he wanted to drink and feel sleepy, he perhaps wanted to go to bed drunk because he was happy thatt the only evening has been blessed with a partner he could have a chat with.

Darkness was slowly looming, the clouds were getting darker and so are the dangers that lie therein.

The two friends were unaware of the danger that lies in the night. If they had any slightest idea of what they will be facing that night, drinking would be the last thing they would consider taking that moment. They were oblivious of their surroundings because of the sweet alcoholic liquor they were taking. If someone had told them that their kingdom would be attacked that night, they wouldn’t have believed the person or the person may end up in jail.

While still drinking that early evening, the King ordered his chess again and requested that the game should be brought from the palace so he could play it with his friend. He plays the game most of the time and his prime minister is no novice here and he seems to know the rules of this game too and they have always played it together. When the game was brought by a soldier, the King arranged it in order and set the board to be in between him and Mr. Uz.

The king picked the red pieces of the pawns while the prime minister picked the white pieces of the pawns.

The game began, and the King underestimated the prime minister but found the prime minister almost trying to checkmate him. Out of experience, Kylian managed to beat Forlan twice before he picked up his racks and started equalizing the game and they ended up a tie. The king laughed hysterically and his prime minister also laughed with him as the game ended up a draw.

“My king, you are still good with this game” Prime minster Forlan said...

“Haha... Of course, I am still good at this game. I enjoy playing it whenever I am less busy”

“I can’t believe that you still remember the rules. I still remember us playing it as kids. I can’t believe much time has passed until you brought this game” Forlan says as he laughs too...

“Let's play one more. I need to access my skills once more and I need to beat you prime minister Uz” said Kylian as he looks at Forlan and laughs at him.

“Game on then!”

They went for the last round to know who would finally win the third round and the king had promised Forlan he would give him a hundred coins of gold if he wins the last rap. Forlan, when he heard this tried to give his best but Kylian too also wanted to give his best because he wouldn’t want to lose careless money like that to the prime minister. He also did remind the prime minister that he would pay if he loses because he wants their last game to be more interesting than the last three games they had played since they started playing that evening.

“You lose, I told you. Hahaha” Kylian laughed hysterically immediately he won the game.

“I’m taking back my gold coins.”

“You luckily won my King. Haha. By the way, that was a nice skill you displayed there”

“Thank you!” Kylian replied to him.

Moments later, they both started seeing heavy embers everywhere around them. They wondered what may have brought it or caused it. And not like they can see anything burning or any house around them that was on fire.

The king stood up and the prime minister too stood up and was watching the spectacle, it was really beautiful because it made light shone everywhere around the palace and made the whole place appear as though something was being celebrated.

“Where are those coming from?” Kylian asked.

“ I don’t really know. Something heavy must be burning somewhere close.”Forlan said.

“You are correct but the question is, from where?” Kylian asked again.

This time, the prime minister paused, he didn’t answer the question immediately. He was looking at the sky and the more he looked the more confused he becomes. He has never seen anything like it before, it looks beautiful to watch but also very worrying. Nothing small could have caused such massive embers to be flying around their kingdoms as if it was raining while it wasn’t.

“Maybe something is burning inside the palace. Let’s go and see if there is anything we can find out” the prime minister, Forlan said.

Both Kylian and the prime minister rushed inside the palace to see for themselves if anything is burning but on getting inside, they didn’t see anything. They wondered where else the fire could be burning or what else might have caused this massive deposition of embers in their Kingdom when suddenly they heard a voice; “we are under attack.”

A soldier rushed into the palace and told them that their kingdom was under serious threat and war was imminent.

“what did you just say? We are under attack? From whom?” King Kylian asked the soldier that rushed inside the palace.

“I don’t know yet because we can't see them from afar. The night is impairing our vision so we can't really tell who is attacking or what is attacking us. We don’t have a clear visual confirmation yet on who they are or why they are attacking us. But from what I have seen, they are fully prepared and they are in their thousands, roughly ten thousand.” The soldier said.

“Thousands? How prepared are they?” Kylian asked.

“I can see heavy canon-like machines, very heavy and big to be fully seen if you are a mile away. They have not started attacking yet but if they do, we will suffer heavy casualties” The soldier explained further.

Azmak is well known for having the highest number of soldiers in the far east, they have more soldiers than Zuix and Alaphas combined. King Kylian was confident that any attack would be comfortably repelled because of the military power Azmak has but unbeknownst to him, this one will be different. They have the soldiers that will fight the war but they lack the machines and necessary equipment to help them out. They depended solely on this military might but Alaphas on the other hand depended on both weapons they have accumulated from the war they had gone to with other kingdoms in recent times and Magnifico who was there as their leader. In this war, Alaphas had an upper hand and Magnifico was aware of it and that is why he didn’t come with many soldiers this time, only with few thousand soldiers or roughly ten thousand.

“Alright, let’s get close to the city wall and see for ourselves what we are up against.” King Kylian said after he had listened to what the soldier told them.

They quickly mounted a horse outside the palace and they rode close to the city walls. They climbed the city wall through a step close to the main gate and they got to the watchtower where they could see what or who is coming inside their kingdom and the King looked and saw hundreds of soldiers standing a mile away from their gate with many machines and most machines were burning as if it was set ablaze but it isn’t. Some machines Kylian saw, he hasn’t seen it before. He saw their flags flying but he couldn’t identify which kingdom was attacking them because they were in the cover of the dark.

“ Who could they be?” Kylian asked why still puzzled.

“I guess, it may be Alaphas. Who else could do this or want to fight without being provoked?” Prime minister Forlan asked.

“I think we should negotiate with them. Let's know what they want and check if we can avoid this war. I will negotiate with them myself and know exactly what they want.” King Kylian asked.

“No. No. No. That’s a big bad idea. You can’t go and negotiate for us. If anything happens to you, we are defeated already even when we are yet to fight.” The prime minister said while the other soldier’s also prayed to King Kylian not to go outside the palace to avoid any possible attack against him.

“If I go out to negotiate as a King, they may respect that, and possibly, we might avoid all this. This doesn’t look good. They have many weapons with them and I have heard so many things about their cruel leader Magnifico. He is no easy catch and we are no match for him only if the people out there are from Alaphas. Please ready my horse and war uniform, I will go with a soldier or two.” Kylian said.

“Alright, sir,” the commander in the gate said.

King Kylian also instructed them to ready their 20,000 soldiers and have them lined up in a strategized way. The military started lining up and getting themselves prepared for an imminent attack while Kylian and three soldiers left with different horses attached with white flags to show that they have come for peace and not war.

When they got close to the troops standing outside the gate, they noticed that they have advanced closer to the city wall, about five thousand feet away from the main entrance into their kingdom. The war machines they came with now became more visible to king Kylian and his guards and they saw that most machines there were alien to them. When they approached closer and closer, King Kylian instructed the soldiers to stop.

“Halt,” Kylian said and they stopped riding their horses. He looked closer and closer to know if he can see where Magnifico was or who was in charge to talk to. He started riding closer while he instructed his guards to stay behind, when he got to where his voice could comfortably communicate with their enemies without carried away by the wind, he said “Who is in charge here? Let’s talk” Kylian asked. He waited to see who was going to respond and suddenly, he saw as the enemy soldiers started clearing the way as if something that doesn’t want to be touched was coming out from the crowd. When the Alaphas soldiers had made way by separating from each other, cutting their formation into two, Kylian saw as six soldiers were carrying a wagon that doesn’t have tyres. He wondered what the soldiers would be carrying inside this wagon and why the person must be inside a wagon when there was a possible war going to ensue anytime soon. He guessed; it must be their leader.

He was watching closely when the wagon was opened to see for himself who that maybe and luckily for him, he saw him after all; it was Magnifico, exactly as explained. He didn’t need much convincing to believe that who he just saw was Magnifico. He came down from the wagon in a majestic fashion and all the soldiers bowed down their heads to salute.

“Are you the one in charge?” Magnifico asked in his very deep voice.

“Yes, I am the one in charge”

“Then where is your King? Where is he hiding? Or he doesn’t have the guts to meet and welcome a supreme King that visited his kingdom?” Magnifico asked Kylian.

“I am the king of Azmak. I am King Kylian, the person in charge of this whole kingdom. So yeah, I have some balls to meet you or whatever you are”

“Good. Good. Good. I think you are brave. I can see you have come to negotiate but I don’t think that’s going to happen today. You took a prisoner of mine and I have come to kill him or perhaps take him alive and I am also going to punish you all for that offense which is k********g a prisoner of mine.” Magnifico said.

“Prisoner of yours? We don’t have any prisoner from Alaphas here in Azmak. Who would be so stupid to steal or take your prisoner? We wouldn’t do that when and we also know that the leader of Alaphas has gone berserk so, I don’t see any reason why we would arrest an Alaphan soldier and keep him here. It doesn’t make any sense at all.” Kylian explained.

He tried as much as he could to maintain a steady voice so he doesn't appear like he is stuttering around in the presence of Magnifico even though it was quite obvious to him that he was scared to death. when he saw Magnifico for the first time in his own Kingdom, ready to fight them any moment from then, he was surprised. He never for once thought of fighting Magnifico let alone meeting him for any reason especially when it is all about war. He had always wanted to ally with Quinax so that when they will fight Alaphas, they will take the war to their home and not to his own home, his kingdom, his fort. If eliminating Magnifico was easy, Kylian would be among the first people to do so because he so much hates any news and rumours about Magnifico since he arrived.

“You don’t have our prisoner? I want to see King Jonas wherever he is hidden in your kingdom now and I may consider reducing the consequences that come with your reckless action” Magnifico said.

“How can the king of Alaphas take refuge here in Azmak? Please we don’t want your troubles and certainly, we don't want to fight with you. We don’t have your prisoner” Jonas pleaded. He became confused, he wondered why the king of Alaphas will come to their Kingdom to hide. He also wondered why the king of Alaphas will be running from his beast.

“Hmm! Then I think you should go back to your Kingdom and wait for our present, we won’t wreak much havoc I promise” Magnifico said to Jonas.

Kylian noticed that what he had come for wasn’t going to work out. He thought he could reach a peaceful resolution with the Army of Alaphas but it wasn’t working out. His guards were watching carefully to know if Kylian was going to be attacked by the Alaphan soldiers but they didn’t, it appears that Magnifico wanted to make the war to be fought on level ground. Maybe that’s why he didn’t want to get the King killed hastily because to him, the king will still die very soon anyway.

King Kylian mounted back at his horse and hoped he doesn’t get shot at the back with an arrow when he starts riding back to his fort. When he got to the guards that have been waiting for him, he told them to follow him up immediately back to the fort.

“Is that the king coming back? Could he have pulled the deal off?” The prime minister asked.

“Open the gates, the King is approaching our fort” a command post soldier shouted from the top tower. The king and the three guards were allowed to enter the gates' after their identity have been confirmed by the soldiers at the top tower. The prime minister, Forlan, and some soldiers came down from the tower to see king Kylian and also to know if what he has gone for, was successful. They were hoping for the best though, but the reverse was the case.