No second chances: The beginning of the end

Chapter 16: Unforgiving Anger.

The mirror began to shatter slowly as if it was the shell of an egg breaking towards the outside. Chronos's mind suddenly flashed images of DD passing away and the egg breaking only to show the descendant passed away as well. Suddenly, the thought of Death began to crawl from the back of his mind as if it was a mist that inevitably approached everyone. Pandora simply observed from her spot, knowing very well that Chronos was the holder of DD’s absolute command, Ad superstes. The mirror kept shattering, showing different images of Chronos himself in all its fragments.

Archival slowly turned to see the rest of the tribe evacuating the forest while flames were spreading across the vegetation; some of them were crushed by flaming trunks falling from the trees after getting blown apart by the rockets. Archival did his best to save as many as he could, letting the roots of the trees cover the ones that already passed, burying them, and letting the forest take their nutrients. Chronos began to move and Archival suddenly turned to see him, widening his eyes while Chronos cast a cloud of ashes, slowly compressing itself to form a sort of spear, long and with a sharp end. Archival felt the same presence when Pandora was alive before the spear suddenly accelerated after Chronos swung his arm, piercing through the scales over the hull and the next turbine, immobilizing the AMHAR instantly.

“Sir, the sweeper's mobility is being restrained by unknown means, we suspect it is the source of the anomaly” –A researcher that accompanied the Ruler stated while getting the audio-visual feed from the control room where the engineers were controlling and checking the integrity of the AMHAR.

“What are they waiting for then? Just activate the bomb and blow that place up, this time it should be enough to damage even a dragon, if not, we could at least get rid of the forest which is a rather annoying factor for the research team” –The ruler commanded and motioned the researcher to give the signal to do so.

Moments later, after the ruler gave the order, the commander in the control room of the research facility doubted to apply it while considering the collateral damage that such an explosion could produce to the neighboring cities and towns, however, the ruler also owned an absolute command, Tractatori.  This command helped him to reach the top, being a smooth talker, saying the right words in the right moment, and leaving the listener without any options but to agree to what he proposes. “I will activate the bomb mechanism, declare the forest as a red zone and protect the nearby population” –The commander ordered while using a key to open a switch to activate the bomb.

The sweeper raised a couple of scales from the back of the hull in order to make the suppressing device go off but another spear cut it off cleanly before it activated, the sweeper was then pierced by several other spears, crippling the remote connection with the control room before the bomb was activated.

A sudden thump could be heard coming from the control room as the commander had both of his fists against the activation console. “Damn it… If I hadn’t hesitated we would’ve probably had the opportunity to end this quickly…” –the commander clenched his fist while cold sweat ran down his forehead as a chill crawled up on his back while he felt the presence of the ruler intimidating him from behind, even though there was nothing.

After impaling the sweeper, Chronos inspected his body in case something happened to it while he was unconscious. “You certainly came out of that mental prison quickly, even a genius would’ve at least taken a minimum of a couple of hours” –Archival pointed out while he slowly caressed his beard amazed at Chronos.

“I wasn’t alone… Pandora appeared in my mind as well, she helped me and before I knew it I was able to make these spears.” –Chronos replied while creating another spear from the ashes that fell over the forest, noticing the feeling of it as if it was something familiar.

“Chronos, you have inherited the very same method of magic Pandora owned, you can manipulate these particles, the ashes.” –Archival added while inspecting the spear closely, checking the ashes tightly overlapping each other, creating a sturdy object.

As Chronos and Archival were talking about the power Pandora bestowed upon him, the earth dragon began to retreat to his lair within the depths of the forest as the forest itself opened a path before the dragon. The forest slowly burned, creating a big cloud of smoke and ashes; even though it was burning, archival whispered a spell, and the sensation of danger slowly faded away as the trees slowly deteriorated before the flames kept spreading, stopping the fire and minimizing the damage done to the forest. It seems like Archival has to phrase a sentence in order to cast a spell while I can cast the ashes in this form at will. It just comes naturally; maybe it was Pandora’s gift since Archival mentioned she also manipulated ashes in this same way. –Chronos thought while inspecting the spear he created as Archival purged the trees affected by the fire.

While the control room was in silent panic due to the situation they just faced, the research team with the ruler were discussing what could have gone wrong replaying the last transmission from the AMHAR. If the sweeper got taken down by either the dragon or the anomaly, then we need to find a way to eliminate that forest without making any contact, nuking it would be pretty irresponsible too; I was expecting the controlled explosion of the sweeper to get rid of both entities. I clearly overestimated the new version with DD’s scales attached to the hull. It was durable but still might not have been enough. Perhaps I could control the dragon somehow; the treants puppeteer seems to be behind this too, so if I’m not mistaken getting rid of him could probably make me able to take the dragon for myself. –The ruler thought while walking towards the research team waiting nearby. “Change of plans, we are going back to the capital, there is an order I need to give and a press conference for the ones that are curious of what happened” –He ordered while getting on one of the helicopters as the rest of the team began to pack up everything in order to return.

Looking in the distance, Archival noticed the helicopters going away and sighed in relief, walking away from the trees and moving around to address the situation better as the forest began to rearrange itself revealing what seemed to be several tombs made out of roots covering the bodies of those who couldn’t escape in time. Chronos slowly followed while looking around as the flora dramatically changed to fill in the gaps left by the fight. Archival then kneeled and began a prayer, allowing the roots to slowly sink underground along with the bodies, letting the forest consume the ones who fell in the heat of the battle. In silence, Chronos felt the same way when he saw Nat making a tomb for her friend, so in order to pay his respects, he also kneeled next to Archival.

As Archival finished the prayer, he stood up and began to walk back towards his hut, which was being rearranged by the tree itself. “Chronos, are you familiar with the concept of God?” –He asked while stopping for a moment. Chronos was in silence, having knowledge about it, but not certain on how to explain it. “Everything in existence is said to be created out of nothingness, however, what is the meaning of it? Why all that once was nothing, became everything? And most importantly, why are we here? Why do we have to go through all these hardships? In my hundreds of years, I couldn’t find a concrete answer to these questions, so at some point, I thought about blaming what humans call and worship as God. However, I stopped thinking like that when I noticed that I would despair because I’m not strong enough to protect those who still walk beside me and that I could not be able to protect those who already left, so my anger turned into sadness, letting me realize that if there was someone or something that could play with our destinies, why wouldn’t I ask him for help? –He continued turning to see Chronos into his eyes.

“Why does it have to be like that? Why can’t he help us survive and overcome this?” –Chronos asked innocently while clenching his fists.

Archival sighed while faintly smiling as he turned his back to Chronos once again. “You are very naïve, Chronos. God is the source of all good and all evil; he is the one who balances order within our realities, a bystander who acts if the scale decants to one of the sides.” –He explained briefly as the branches of the trees helped him and Chronos to reach the top.

“So all this was bound to happen to keep order? Many of your tribe didn’t survive while trying to escape this last battle.” –Chronos countered while looking down towards the tombs.

“No, and this is why you are here, to carry out the will of the one who was supposed to bring the scale back into balance. Humanity, in its own greed, decanted the scale as they kept searching for more power, and that is the reason why the world turned like this because those who acquired the power wanted to rule over everything. I promise you Chronos, This forest and me will help you to understand your newfound power.” –Archival stated while stepping on his hut as Chronos followed. “You will have to go back to that mental mirage where you met Pandora, but this time you have to look further within in order to understand her will and your magic better” –He explained as he sat in the middle of the hut.

“Will it be the same amount of time as the first? Or it was because of Pandora’s help?” –Chronos asked while sitting in front of Archival. If I go back there, I might not be able to break the glass again; Pandora mentioned she wouldn’t be able to help me like that before I regained consciousness.-Chronos recalled briefly.

“The next step will be harder than the first one, you could be lost in your mind for even months but I trust you, you will find a way to get out faster, you are a gifted one after all.” –Archival mentioned while playing with his beard wearing a smile. “All you need to do now is to focus, as your body falls asleep, this meditation will keep you conscious but unable to move; you need to exercise your knowledge and imagination, so you will then be allowed to get back to your body. Many avoid this step since they could not handle the pressure of being in a comatose trance, so most mages are rather mediocre because of it.” –He finally explained.

Chronos attempted to get back into the same state while suddenly feeling his body drop without any resistance. Naturally, he panicked but noticed Archival holding him and letting him rest on the floor of the hut. “I’ll protect the forest now; you can try your best without interruptions” –He said while guarding the door of the hut as Chronos went fully unconscious.

The sun was fully setting as a group of people stepped into the forest, shadowy figures that held some elves who escaped earlier, beaten and on the verge of dying, begging for their lives to no avail since their aggressors didn’t understand their pleads. The forest naturally tried to expulse them but they simply pushed forward before letting one of the elves run away. The elf desperately tried to go back to the treetops’ huts while wearing a collar the group of people attached to her. One of the individuals turned on a notepad that showed the location of the elf via satellite; shortly after that, they began to follow her until arriving at the place Archival was.

The young female elf ended up meeting Archival while he was waiting for her but as soon as she opened her mouth to scream for him to escape, the collar blew up, severing her head as she was still in motion. The momentum splattered blood around and kept the head in movement until reaching Archival’s feet. Suddenly, the whole forest shook in response to a wave of growing anger that Archival felt after a long while from the time he saw Pandora getting slaughtered in front of him with her own magic. The group of people slowly made their way out of the darkness and stepped closer to Archival. “You should’ve not done that” –Archival said in their language as they began to laugh and joke about how there was one who could actually be smart among them. His blood began to boil; his eyes were slowly rising from the head on his feet towards the group of mercenaries. The laughter dramatically turned into noises of muscles and bones getting crushed and severed. Archival sighed and walked closer to the gruesome scene of bodies impaled and brutally destroyed by several branches and roots. “These are not even worth becoming nourishment for the forest, so I’ll use them as a warning” –Archival talked to himself while walking towards where the mercenaries came from.