"Why-- are you doing this?" the official kneeling in front of Lucius struggled to ask.
Lucius moved his head to look at the official, and for a moment an image of one of the military bigwigs back on earth superimposed with his.
"Because I've dealt with people like you before. You waste time arguing over everything, and in the end, the people I'm supposed to protect end up dead," Lucius replied, spite filling his voice as he stared at the official with hatred.
There were a few dozen cycles in the mindscape where he had gotten back into the military. Each time his entire platoon would die because of the carelessness of the old men who called the shots.
"Besides, I'm not going to let you use me as you will. You think I'm too dumb to realize that you guys only saved me so that I would become your little plaything?" Lucius asked, looking up to stare at Shaviki.
"So you saw right through me?" Shaviki asked the polite look on his face instantly disappearing as he said this.
"Tell your king to hurry up. I won't hurt any of his people, I know how it feels to have children you want to protect. But if anyone tries anything funny, I can't keep that promise," Lucius replied.
"I appreciate the gesture, though I would appreciate it even more if you would let my retainer go," a low-powerful voice whispered. A moment later, a massive creature appeared right beside Luicus.
Instinctively, his tail lashed out to attack the creature, but just then an equally massive tail lashed out to stop his. The two tails tussled for a moment, until eventually the more skilled one won. That being the tail of the Chame's king.
"Who would've thought that Havon was such a troublemaker? I'm glad we housed him here," another voice added before an even more massive creature entered the congress room.
This one looked very different from the others. Whereas all the Chame warriors had green skin, this one had orange skin.
~Why isn't my earth sense working?~ Lucius wondered, as he covered himself in a thin layer of poison gas.
"Calm down, we aren't your enemies," Avankor explained as he walked towards Lucius.
"Well, I could be, depending on how you choose your next few moves," Shavak added, a pissed expression on his face.
"You can turn invisible?" Lucius asked, dividing his attention between the approaching Avankor, and Shavak who looked like he would kill him at any moment.
"What of it?" Shavak asked, before moving to grab Lucius's head. Lucius quickly moved to counter this, grabbing Shavak's hand before it could reach him.
"Avankor, I don't think this is the hero of legend," Shavak snarled, before trying to yank his hand away. Though he was surprised to find just how strong Luicus was. He tried again, this time putting in more effort, but still, his hand would not budge.
"What's wrong?" Avankor asked, noticing that something was off.
"Isn't he a tier 3 creature?" Shavak asked.
"His mark is on his back. You saw it yourself," Avankor replied thoughtfully, stopping at the earth-stairs to stare at Lucius.
"Something's off," Shavak added before turning invisible. Lucius felt Shavak's hand disappear as well, leaving him gripping at thin air.
~He really disappeared? Then it's not just invisibility,~ Luicus inferred, before casting solar trace. With that Shavak appeared once more, completely confused by what was going on.
"You've been moving carelessly. You know, I could be your enemy, depending on how you chose your next few moves," Lucius said, his crux floating right in front of Shavak's face.
No matter how strong Shavak was, a point-blank solar beam would turn him into chameleon barbeque.
"Shavak, you've been outplayed by a newborn," Avankor laughed mirthfully, his whole body shaking up and down. He seemed to find the situation genuinely funny.
"What are your demands, Havon?" Avankor asked, as his laughter slowly died down.
"My child, Alpha, and whatever information you can spare to help me slay the necromancer," Lucius replied sternly, now warier of Avankor. Something about how comfortable Avankor seemed even after seeing just how helpless his comrade was uneased Lucius.
"Is that all? Then it'll be done. However, before we do all that, do you mind if we talk? You see, the situation on the outside isn't so good," Avankor replied, his tone more serious now.
"The situation?" Lucius asked, his crux still floating in front of Shavak's face, holding him in place.
"I see you aren't in the mood to sit. Well, I understand. After fighting that creature alone and waking up in a strange place I'd be this difficult too," Avankor sighed, before moving to sit on one of the earth chairs around the main table.
"Though I have to ask that you let the Chame's king go. You have to understand that you're scaring everyone in the room. Even if you're only acting in your best interests, as the father of a commune yourself, you have to understand," Avankor said, gesturing towards the shivering Chame warriors at the door.
Their eyes showed genuine fear, with some of them even having tears collecting at the rim of their eyes.
"You can go seat over there," Lucius replied, gesturing for Shavak to move slowly towards Avankor. Once the two kings were seated side by side, Lucius moved his crux so that it was floating just between him and the two of them.
"What's this situation everyone keeps talking about?" Lucius asked as he slumped back into King's chair. This earned an angry snort from Shavak, and another mirthful laugh from Avankor.
"The war," Avankor began, his tone shifting suddenly.
"THE CREATURE has taken over this side of the forest, and has begun its siege on the Orion Forest," he continued.
"The necromancer couldn't have grown that powerful overnight. Weren't you guys locking him in a stalemate?" Lucius asked, his heart suddenly thundering.
If he took over this sector of the forest, did that mean that the rest of his commune had already been killed?
"Except this didn't happen overnight. It's been 30 luna cycles since we retrieved you from THE CREATURE'S den. And in those 30 cycles, we've seen more deaths in our ranks than ever before," Avankor replied.
"30-- 30 days? No... no," Lucius thought in despair, the weight of whatever hope he had of saving his children crushing his entire being as it shattered to pieces.
