My Friend

Part 4

"What is going on here, Lord Calorignis?" he asked. His voice was soft and almost toneless, barely audible. Even though he spoke softly, I had no problem hearing him. His voice scared me.

"Just a small inconvenience, Emperor. I have this completely under control." Calorignis stalked over to us, circling us like a bird of prey. "My dear King Rycréan, why are you always so rebellious?" he murmured. "How very unlucky for you that I am not the one interested in being king. Your death would have been much more merciful by my hand than by the Emperor's."

Ryan tried to say something, but he couldn't move.

"I was hoping," the dark man said, "to have another day to prepare for battle. However, it seems as though our king is eager to fight. Here is a good place. Now is a good time." He held the sword up and pointed it at Ryan's chest. "King Rycréan Neo Cossolus of Heliosauna, I challenge you to a duel for your crown and power."

Something in the atmosphere changed. I still don't know what it is, and it puzzles me the more I think about it, but it wasn't quite like a feeling. It was some sort of pressure or something visible in the air, some unfathomable power I don't have the words to explain. As soon as Emperor Umberlios spoke those words, something snapped in the air, as if the universe was taking note of his request.

Magic is a complicated thing. I remember watching my torn and bloody friend break out of Calorignis' spell and stand up straighter as he said, "Emperor Shios Kan Umberlios, I accept your challenge." I remember asking why he accepted, when he could have just declined and run away. I remember Calorignis laugh and tell me that once a challenge was given to a king, he couldn't back down, or the whole universe would work hard to destroy him. No one who had ever declined a challenge has survived. At least he still had a chance to win if he accepted. I watched as Umberlios and Ryan seemed to perform some sort of ritual, and that Ryan got his crown and sword back. Again, I asked about this and the grey man told me that the king had to have his crown and sword in order for the challenge to be valid. I continued to ask questions, and learned that anyone who killed the king became the next king - because once someone became king, they lost their power to marry and reproduce. Royalty didn't depend on lineage or genetics. There were no heirs. Only murderers. Each king, however, was only granted the crown and the sword. He got no extra magical abilities. But if someone wanted the current king's powers, they had to formally challenge him and kill him with the black sword Ryan was now holding in his bloody fingers. Doing so would transfer both the crown and all of his powers into the murderer. The opposite was true as well - if the current king defeated and killed the challenger, he gained all of their powers as well.

I listened to this with despair. Ryan was already weak. He was going to be slaughtered before he could even take a breath.

As soon as their strange ritual was completed, Umberlios rose off of the ground and grew, spreading shadow until the red in the sky was completely covered by black. I could barely see my friend. Only the glowing jewels in his crown and sword penetrated the darkness. I heard him beat his wings and the cloud thinned around him, and what I saw there forever changed my impression of kings.

It didn't matter that he wasn't wearing gems or riches. It didn't matter that he had a stab wound in one arm and the other had momentarily been chewed on by a demon. It didn't matter than he'd been beaten and marched through a desert for a day. He stood there, in all his majesty's glory, and he scared me. The pure power that seemed to radiate off of him pierced my heart and sent chills down my spine. He had his wings spread their full twenty five foot span and he stood his full height of six foot two, his face raised up to the sky, his sword gripped tightly in his left hand. He looked like a god. That's the only way to describe it. He watched calmly as Umberlios expanded and morphed into a hellish monster and then attacked the beast with power only a god could possess.

And then the cloud of darkness covered him up.

I heard their fight. They sounded like dragons, screaming, screeching, ripping into each other. I heard Umberlios' inhuman shrieks, and then I heard Ryan scream out phrases that forever stuck in my mind.

"I WILL NEVER LET YOU DESTROY MY PEOPLE LIKE YOU DESTROYED ME. I WILL NEVER LET YOU HARM ALEXANDER IN YOUR SORRY THOUSAND YEARS OF LIFE. YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME. I WILL NOT BE BROKEN."

The second phrase hit me the hardest. He was doing this to protect me. He wasn't going to back down. I had to do something.

I stepped forward and took a deep breath. It was too late to turn back. I remember the purest form of terror surging through my body. My heart was pounding and I felt frozen to the ground. The sandy wind whipped at my face, cutting me open, but there was no place to hide. I wasn't going to back down, neither was I going to simply wait it out.

Ignoring Calorignis' order to stay where I was, I rushed forward, armed with nothing but my bare hands and my determination, and found myself in the middle of a battle between heaven and hell. I could only look up in awesome wonder and marvel at their power. I could see everything clearly now. It seemed as though Ryan was winning. King Rycréan would never be defeated.

My hopes were crushed finer than powder as the monstrous nightmare Umberlios hit him with a blast of shadow. I almost stopped breathing as my friend, my guardian, my king fell from the sky without so much as a gasp and hit the ground with a crack only a few strides away from me.

Umberlios landed with a thump and a small earthquake, stepping toward him as he shrank back down to his more human form. Ryan dragged himself up, one of his wings snapped and useless, his right arm hanging limp at his side, dislocated at the shoulder. His left leg was a bloody mess and he was barley able to stand. But the thing that made me waver was his expression - his eyes. He was terrified. Suddenly, a death filled with agony was a very real possibility. He wasn't invincible.

"Ryan!" I screamed, running toward him.

He turned just a little, his eyes flickering over to me, and Umberlios took that opportunity. His silver sword stabbed right through his stomach, protruding out his back. Ryan staggered, and then crumpled with a gasp for breath. Umberlios stepped back, letting go of his sword and leaving it inside of his opponent.

"No!" I cried in despair. I fought against the shredding wind and bursts of overwhelming terror and despair, and fell to my knees next to my friend. I gently grabbed him, holding him close to me as he gasped for air. I didn't dare remove the blade. All I could do was hold him as he bled and bled and stared up at the sky with blank eyes.

"Alex," he suddenly said, turning to stare right at me. Tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"You're the best friend I've ever had, Ryan. Please don't leave me. Don't let this man be king."

"Alex," he whispered. "You have to kill me."

"What?" I choked out.

"Take this." He took my hand and rested it on his black sword. "Kill me with it. Right through the heart. It'll be quick and you'll be king. You'll get my powers."

"I don't want to be king. I can't kill you." I was sobbing, too, barely able to speak.

"And ... when it's all over, we can be together," he breathed, "venture to the world inside. I can see it ... deeper. I can see it clearer."

"What are you talking about?" I cried.

"You're meant to be king. I can see it in your destiny." He smiled at me, ever so slightly, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "I'll never be afraid to die again. I'll always be there for you, my friend."

"Ryan - "

"And after all that we've been through ... will this light lead me to you?" He coughed weakly, shaking in my arms. "I can't stay here one more day ... " He squeezed my hand - the hand around the hilt of his sword. "I swear to you, I'm not afraid ... "

"Don't leave me," I begged.

"Through the wind chimes ... through the bells ... I would carry you through hell ... " His grip loosened on my hand. "Please, Alex. Please kill me. Save this world. Remember me."

And so I did.