Nerquin/4

THE REIGN OF KRYN
Kryn moved forward, he carried the blades and a small emotion crept upon him, pride. And curiosity followed. He thought of what Zerkaz had said about life, perhaps being practical wasn’t completely practical. He moved towards the clinic, because he was the new lord of Kibosh, he had been able to request for this. He was prepared. Curiosity was taking over, what would his thoughts be like after this?

Kryn moved along the corridors now, grasping his blades he called upon his unit and moved out, his life was beginning to get the spark nobody noticed. A smirk was on his face, for death may now be real to him, but he wasn’t afraid of it, yet.

A shout was heard in the distance, Kryn moved impulsively towards it and was at the throats of his enemy before they had time to react. He slashed along the ranks in battle with his twin swords of diamondium. Blood stained the glass floors again and Kryn suppressed any slice he received. His body was covered in scabs of the sort, and he had some cloth tied around his slightly cut arms.

In the next battle, Kryn’s left arm received a large amount of damage as he had blocked some attacks. His arm was damaged enough that it was slightly immobile, Kryn was advised by his escorts to go to the clinic, and he thought that he might as well. It hurt within him enough that he started knowing what pain was like, and he could not call what the torturing he had received by Vrelk would have felt like.

There, they gave him an arm brace. He also was able to select some battle gear that would aid him in his style of combat. He chose a pair of stealth shoes, black pants that were made of silk and a constrained crimson vest that fit well against his body. His left arm held a brace of some sort that held his shoulder blade and came down in aluminium plates. He wore gloves that had holes for his fingers to come out of, the holes were hexagons and the gloves were the crimson color of Kibosh. From the battle gloves he wore were claws that were held by a pulley system to act much like a cat’s retractable claws. The claws fit into little pockets sewn on the gloves. The claws were also of an iron alloy.

Kryn was quick to want to exit the clinic, and when he was let out the next day with his new gear he was ready to verse his foe. He also made some more bombs to use. Kibosh was advancing very quickly. But before he could leave the base they had made, his elites wanted to have a conference over the matter of new politics. Something Kryn wasn’t very interested in.

In the cubicle they had made for planning attacks, was where Kryn looked at what was his advisors. They had been chosen by Zerkaz, and though chosen logically, Kryn wondered if they fit his logic. He felt a little nervous. Ezel was at the center of the table, facing Kryn. In battle, Kryn had not taken note of Ezel, but now he saw the short dark blond hair that Ezel had with her face scared minorly. Ezel was tattooed with the hexagons of Kibosh along her wrist and wore a look of relaxed formality, Zerkaz seemed to have chosen the relaxed soldiers for his advisors as most of the high ranked were relaxed, yet still alert. Ezel spoke first, "Hello Kryn, I see that Zerkaz chose you in his monarchy. He held Kibosh for twenty years, most unions don't last half that time. Never mind the life span of a soldier or leader, I've been here for only four years and I have high seniority. In respect to his death we must finish Equipoise. I see you have made sure that you can be safe in this zone of terror. Do you know the history of Doom?"

"No, I have not had time to study history here."

"Then I will give you a brief description of it, a leader should look at past events to predict future events," Ezel took a sip at her glass of water before continuing,

"Doom was one of the first floors made, originally a normal sector by the name of Alpha. Later, once they had finished Beta, Gamma and Delta they found that Alpha could be emptied and filled with the extreme outlaws. More time passed and the condominium of Nerkquin grew. More were sent down but as the population raised, so did the violence. Anarchy set upon Doom for a time until finally Nik Kay, an outlaw in organized crime, made alliances with people and soon formed a large group. This group was more then the small gangs that ran about, but a real organized group that was called Union. Union acted slightly like a gang, only incorporated a law system to it that was more fair. Union roamed around, crushing many gangs. Eventually, many gangs followed suit and became another very large gang called Might. Might fought against Union and eventually many other groups appeared. Eventually, no more gangs existed and people started calling them unions, after the first union. Might and Union both fell, causing chaos to spread as other unions hurried to take the weakening zones. This chaos never calmed down. Because the unions were no longer out weighed by the large unions of Union and Might, borders started to change more frequently. Not much happened after, just constant blood shed."

"Interesting, how was Union defeated?"

"With the death of Nik Kay, Union lost focus and Might took advantage. Soon after, Might's leader died also and the small population after the siege of Union could not hold off the many unions attacking."

"I see, now to deal with the present. What state is Equipoise in?"

"They seem to have called for reinforcements, as we guessed they would have. Thankfully, our plan to make the alliances busy has worked. They will be helped once we call our alliances though."

"Once we have cut them off from communication, we will call in our allies."

"We will still be attacked by the other allies."

"That is why we will bolden the ring of capture, or we can do an alternative I have thought of."

"And that would be?"

"I once reached the core of Equipoise, I would have killed Vrelk had one gunmen not struck me. I wish to go back, prepared."

"You are our leader now, such actions are unpractical."

"I guess I am not made to lead a mob, I don't care for the limits."

"Such limits must be held."

"Zerkaz put himself on the line, did you not stop him?"

"You are not Zerkaz, you are Kryn. Either way, Zerkaz would have done much more had we not stopped him."

"Then try to stop me as much as you wish, I will go into Equipoise."

"And if you do not return?"

"Then have Zerkaz's other heir be leader."

"Yes, I would have been heir had you not come."

"Then I will be off in due time, focus on surrounding Equipoise."

Kryn moved, his battle gear fully equipped. His arm brace had been removed and replaced with a silk sleeve, he now walked cautiously through Equipoise. His two claws were sharpened and his two swords in grasp also. He wore steel chain mail over his vest to protect him, and a helmet of the same alloy.

The defence was stronger then Kryn's former visit, and already he had had a fight It had been close, he had to use his bomb in protection and had fled in fear. He reconsidered and decided to go back for a unit, and soon he had a unit of three escorts. Ezel was one of them. Kryn had decided to keep her as an advisor.

Kryn's group claimed another cubicle, and decided to rest in it. Kryn set a security system on the doors and sat down at a table that had some water and bread.

They moved along in stealth once again now, when an enemy unit moved by they stepped back. Kryn kept an ear for foot steps and an eye for traps while Ezel kept the other escorts in line. Joshua moved behind Ezel beside the other escort being Greg, now healed enough to return into battle.

Each step was taken with caution, any mistake could mean instant death. Twice Kryn had already detected traps. Ezel had walked over one, thankfully her reflexes had her jump back from the automatic firing of multiple bullets when she heard the pressure of the untended air packs slightly releasing. Kryn noted that they should have made it more in a long hall way, with the censor in the center. That way, one would be unable to dodge the bullets. Now another incompetent trap was ahead, the lights were broken so it was harder to see, but still Kryn could see the feint glimmer of grease upon the glass floor. If one were to slide on it, they would surely damage their head even with a steel helmet. Kryn ordered them down, they would slide across on their backs. Greg slid first, he soon slid into the wall, but was able to brace himself for minimum impact, he then slid around the corner, and signalled that they come one at a time. Ezel went next, followed by Kryn and then Joshua. Soon they were up again, creeping ever so carefully into the core. Kryn might meet Vrelk, and he anticipated the meeting as he felt it was so soon. He would finish this battle, for Zerkaz.

Greg slipped.

And in moments, the carefulness they had kept fell apart, Ezel grabbed Greg and slowed the fall enough to not cause lethal pain, while falling herself. Kryn stepped back and Joshua had continued the domino-reflex effect by falling too. Only Kryn had held off his impulse. Iron plates banged about and rang about the hall, Kryn bent down, told his escorts to be quiet and laid an ear to the ground. He could hear the rush of an armoured unit jogging towards them in the distance. He got up and yelled at his fallen, yet alive, escorts to get prepared for battle. In moments they were organized, and in moments the enemy had reached them. They ran at each other and slashes began once more, Kryn had worked hard to avoid conflict. But he was still ready, in moments he ran into the five guards and in moments they were dead. Greg was killed and Joshua injured. Ezel also had many cuts, but she could take it. Kryn, on the other hand, was not cut at all. This was due to the fact that he had learned quickly, like everything, how to predict with high probability the actions of a guard. He had been watching through all his battles what actions each soldier took, how they reacted and what their psychology must be like from the brief time he had to watch them. In a moment he could tell if someone was nervous or brave, berserk or calm. He had been working on it more and more, and now he had fulfilled it. Greg had not even learned these subconsciencely, and so he was dead. Joshua, hurt by this battle moved to the side and sat down to tend to them. Ezel moved Greg, while removing the plates. She sent Joshua to bring the metal back to the base, along with the other armours of the guards. She then turned to Kryn.

"What should we do now? Continue and likely die or abandon our plan?"

Kryn thought before responding, logical choice led him to want to withdraw, when he took out emotional direction, he thought of sending Ezel back. But then he thought of Zerkaz. He would avenge the death of Zerkaz. "Get a gun, we're going after Vrelk."

Ezel stood for a moment, but she was loyal even to the new leader. She quickly grabbed one of the guns of the dead guards, Kryn did so also while saying "If we can siege their chemistry lab, I think I can make some more powerful explosives, like nitroglycerin and blasting gelatine. I wanted to see if people would beg for the formula of black powder, but the wanting for it was little as they don't see that the source may disappear."

"I think the chemistry lab is around here, a few hundred metres away."

"Alright, lets get moving and keep quiet. If we meet a unit, I might not be able to estimate at such a good level, this was my first time of having it at total accuracy."

"Interesting, have you documented this study of advanced battle psychology?"

"Yes, it is in the vault."

"So Zerkaz told you the code?"

"Yes, one of the reasons Vrelk didn't kill me is for the code."

"Zerkaz had many battles to get that much diamondium, he even forged a lot of it with the crude materials he won. Either way, lets get to the chemistry lab."

They moved once again, half in number and much higher in stealth. Kryn kept an ear open still, and still watched for traps. Ezel moved through her mental map of Equipoise, the path to the chemistry lab wasn't direct and they had to detour a lot. A few instances had led them to almost get into a conflict, but they had been able to detour around the threat.

The walk was long, they had to avoid the mobile guards and the immobile traps. The guards could be dealt with, they might have been a problem but they talked in the thought that their was no threat. The traps had to be watched for, an underestimation of a subtle noise, the faded glimmer of liquid, or any other quirk. Finally, they reached the lab.

They could see it around the corner, guarded of course. Guarded because they knew that Kibosh could make stuff with the junk that was more powerful then they thought probable. Bombs were what they hoped would not turn the corner in this war. In the lab, inexperienced scientists worked on the research of explosives. They had taken samples of the residue of the bombs and were constantly trying to duplicate the Kibosh explosives.

Kryn and Ezel aimed their guns. Inside the bullets, Kryn had put small quantities of black powder. This powder would explode on impact with the armour that the guards wore. Kryn aimed for the can of hydrogen, Ezel for one of the guards. Then the air pressure shot out and the hydrogen gunmen jumped at the slight hiss. But their time to find the point of danger was too small, and soon one was in a blast of flame, which scorched the others. The lethal part though was the shrapnel that flew about. The hydrogen also had an effect. Kryn and Ezel had hid behind the corner for safety, the opaque glass giving out a low sound from the metal scraps. Soon the opaque panel covering the cubicle of the lab opened and a face looked through the transparent glass. Quickly, the panel was reset and the door sounded of its pressure lock increasing. Four small holes opened to show guns coming from some, and other guns which seemed to be slightly modified. Ezel stopped, as she had began running towards the door. She ran back, the air guns shooting with bullets, and the other ones shooting with something different. They shot with crude packets of explosives. These packets contained very low grade explosive powers, they did not explode on impact but actually had flints on the end of them, so that when the bomb-bullets struck solid mass they would ignite. They were more ground up pieces of hollow glass beads that were pressurized, with small pieces of paper in them.

Kryn waited it out, the glass shattering about. Ezel had acted to soon, and was now catching her breath. Soon the shots slowed, and Kryn shot at one of the guns. Once again, the shots started again. Kryn paused, pulled out a packet of black powder that he had in one of the pouches he had installed in his vest. He threw it in front of the cubicle. Time passed. The scientists inside were thinking if they should try get this unblown black powder. But they knew a bullet was trained on it. If a bullet struck that packet, it would explode and with it they would be scorched. They waited some more, and Kryn threw another packet. It landed away from the original packet, but still the same distance to the building. Time passed again, Ezel whispered, "What are you doing?". Kryn turned explained while still watching the packets with an aimed gun, "They have computers, but the line got wrecked in the explosion, see the indent in the glass and the wires there, they have lost communications. I have set packets along the lab so that they will either come out for them, and get blasted or I may be able to cause a domino effect and destroy the guns."

With that, he threw another packet. The pause prolonged. He threw another at the corner. He waited for awhile. Time sat about. Still, none came out. So Kryn took aim, and shot. Soon one packet set off followed by another after another. Each raised and set the ammunition in the bomb guns alight. These guns shot out the glass and were wrecked. Now the air guns were left, Kryn shot at one, wrecking it. The other one recoiled before he could shoot it. He asked Ezel for a sulphured wick. Then he set the wick in a packet of black powder. He took out a match and lit it. The sulphured wick ran down, and he threw it into the hole that had been left open, as the inhabitants planned to shoot out as soon as someone moved forward. An explosion sounded in the room, after some screams of course. Kryn stepped forward, no shots sounded. He waited for a moment, nothing happened. He pulled out a tube of black powder. Ezel moved forward, she also held a tube of black powder. Kryn moved beside the door and laid some at the door. Ezel did the same. Then Kryn took another match and lit a line of sulphured wick, which he and Ezel followed with running for cover.

The black powder exploded, and the glass shattered as it had already taken the hydrogen case's shrapnel. And then the counter strike began, as Kryn and Ezel moved forward, packets of the weak explosives were thrown out already lit, they came in mobs and the shattered glass would cut someone with such a mass of them. But Kryn turned around and ran, glass shot off his armour and some pierced his arm and legs. Ezel also had similar injuries. Kryn sat down, and ripped off his silk sleeves, then ripped them both in half. He wrapped them around his legs and arms, so to lessen blood circulation. He then picked out any visible glass, as did Ezel. Ezel raised her gun and charged it, shooting at the open door. An explosion sounded, and while this made the people inside hide away, Kryn moved beside the door. The disadvantage they had was that the guns in the lab were likely rigged to keep a pressure lock on, and therefore they did not have to pump the air into the guns constantly. He then pulled out his blades, it would not need to be repressurized like the gun he had used. He had taken many gunmen before, he could take the few in the lab. He stepped in, and dived as he expected the shot for him. He didn't have much test data in his mind on gunmen, so he had to guess what the people in the lab would think like. He didn't advance, a glass desk was beside him and it was a block so that it couldn't be shot through. Kryn estimated three gunmen were in the lab with him, he didn't want to give them time to position themselves. He leapt up and dived at the first, who was caught off guard as they expected him to run. The other two had thought the same and had shot at his legs, as he was wearing armour. The bullets hit his armour instead. The first fell, and Kryn, with the gun the victim had shot at another gunmen while dodging behind the computer. Now he was beside the computer and a book shelf. He waited with his blades ready, a gun shot out quickly and shot him in the arm, he slashed the gun in return. The other gunmen had moved in by now and taken aim, Kryn slashed his other blade at the last gunmen with a gun. The gun raised in aim slightly and struck Kryn's helmet. This still hurt, and Kryn stepped back. The other gunman moved in with a large sack lit that was full of the glass beads. The gunman ran out, only to be shot by Ezel. Kryn ran away, fear coming into him as he could hear the glass beads blasting away, and he made a jump for the desk, and then to the exit, where glass deflected and struck him. This was only an addition to the glass that had struck him while he had made his dash.

One person was left in the lab, and two were against the foe. Kryn took out his last case of black powder. He took another wick from Ezel and then lit it. He slid the case into the lab, and then ran. The man inside had not had time to run, and so if he wasn't already dead, he would be.

And the explosion sounded. And this time the remnants of any of the weak explosives caught fire. Kryn moved in quickly, he didn't want the chemicals in the lab to be ruined. Some might already be wrecked. Surely, any that were out of their packages would have already been burned. Kryn moved quickly, he held back his slight fear and tried to think like he use to, logically. It was hard to keep a train of thought that held pure logic. He looked about, on the table were cases of the imperfect explosives, he took the cases and set them at the door, Ezel stood guard at the entrance. They seemed to have many chemicals which were just releasing smoke, and fumes. He dared not breath in the air that was most certainly toxic. Kryn moved over to the shelves, looked through them and saw the raw materials he wanted. He couldn't take them, but no flames seemed to be about. He took all he could of the material that wasn't poison to the skin. Outside, he heard some shots. He charged his gun while escaping the room. Outside, Ezel had retreated somewhere he didn't know, but she seemed to have taken the materials with her. Kryn had three choices now, fight off the gunmen, hide in the fumes or run. If he ran, the gunmen would surely siege the lab. He still needed to get more materials from it. He took a moment to drain himself of all the emotion he could hinder, and then moved forward like he had in the past. He ran with his blades out and slashed at one gunman, while stabbing one lethally. Shots came out, but by now he had taken himself back to his void, the void he had begun to slightly miss. The void that had protected him for so long, he held it tightly and only his subconscience felt the calm and comfort, for it was blocking off his conscience's share. He soon took a slice at another two. He moved forward. A gunman took aim, but while the trigger was pressed he had already followed the line of sight and already predicted the small change the gunman was making to confuse Kryn. Kryn held the blade he had crafted in the trajectory of the gun's aim, the bullet struck it and then the blade came down again, slashing into the stomach of the foe while doing so and to the point, ending the battle. But already, Kryn knew that one of the gunman had ran to get reinforcements. Six had come, five had died. He looked about, there were four corridors. They had come from the one ahead of him, a likely choice for if the gunman had made a quick thought on where to go. Kryn ran forward, he would return later. Kryn ran, his ears open. His sight had sharpened. He scanned for traps at the maximum speed his brain could process the information, which was very quick. Many times he dodged traps, and all while going through his mental map and taking the path he guessed the gunman had taken. A few units had been passed, a few units had vanished. Kryn kept running, until he gave up on getting to the gunman and started to just run for the core. Few had time to react, he ran quickly and was aware of everything. His mind was getting tired, but like his body it didn’t stop. Fatigue was setting in, but he fought it. If he got to the core, to Vrelk, he would take the source of Equipoise away and have a much easier time taking down the enemy union. But then he fell. He had ran for kilometres. His mind had focused on everything about him. He had reached his limit. He lay on the cold glass. His legs were numb. His arms were numb. His whole body was numb. And with it, his mind. And with a numb mind, he was left on the hard floor. The fall had been painful enough, though he did not feel it. He just laid on the ground, in thought. On how bold he had been, he had thought he had held off his emotion but he hadn’t. He had overestimated himself, something only possible with emotion. And now the blockade fell. His emotions flooded in. He was afraid. If a unit came and saw him in this state, he would surely be killed. They would know he was Kryn, he wore the hexagons of Kibosh and the red tattoos were embedded upon him. But how long would he lay upon the glass? He didn’t want to get up, he wanted to lay there forever. He wanted to just let go…

Ezel had decided to run though. She had seen her disadvantage. She had seen her exit. She had ran, and the gunmen hadn’t followed. She had hid from the bullets and the gunmen had guessed that Ezel, advisor of Kibosh, had been escorting Kryn. And she knew she should have stayed back. When it struck her that she was the last to protect Kryn, and that the materials she carried with her were useless unless used correctly, and that Kryn was the only one with the knowledge. That is when she turned back. When she reached the lab, with the smell draining out of the cubicle, she saw that Kryn was gone, none of the five dead bodies which laid upon the floor were Kryn. There were four options, and she needed to chose the right one. Would Kryn run back to Kibosh or to the core of Equipoise? He had wanted to go to the core, he probably would with this chance. That meant that the most likely path, and the most dangerous path, was to the core. Ezel started off. She knew she was headed in the right direction when she passed a unit of five dead guards. Each with slashes inlaid upon them harshly and with no need for another gash. The clean swipes which pierced the aluminium armours was that of a trained arm and of diamondium. Kryn was certainly headed directly for the core. And then Ezel tripped, she hadn’t detected the greased floor. She tried to tilt her body so that she would role and ended up going down the path that was only usable by sliding across the grease. This was not an actual path that led anywhere, it just led to a slight slope in which grease was also and where any who tried to get up on the forty degree slope would most certainly trip.

Ezel laid with her feet on the wall, she could always slide up the slope, the small mistakes some engineers made. As she kicked off of the slope, she realized that the engineers had seen this problem quiet well, and that she had actually ramped over an opening. She slid down the slide, and landed in a dungeon. The design of the dungeon was quite archaic, simple iron bars of two centimetres thick gated the front, the only opening was the back which was of a seventy degree angle. The bars had a door, which was locked with the crude usage of a bar that was of eight centimetres. When she landed, she had pressed down upon a touch sensitive pad that alerted the core and opened connection with a monitor.

Vrelk soon was looking through the monitor, he had been trying to hack into the Kibosh directory which the despot prior to Zerkaz had sealed. He looked at Ezel, and smiled.

“Hello, Ezel. How is Kibosh doing under that fool…Kryn is it? I hope Zerkaz died quickly, he was clever whether I liked his style or not. Why does Kibosh stand against our wanting of law? We wish to siege Doom, and then move towards democracy. Either way, I also have your gene strand. It is very nice.”

“Where did you get your information from?”

“I have my sources, you think all your Kibosh elites are trust worthy?”

“I see, well if Kryn is a fool then we are all the more foolish.”

“Stop it with this babble of speech, I’ve sent an elite to get you. I hope you are most gentle. We need more women in Equipoise, ever since Kibosh took our last elevator.”

“What are you inclining to?”

“Don’t be a fool, I know you will never be loyal to Equipoise. But your children, yes. We have no other income of population, it is entirely supported by children being born within Equipoise. I am giving benefits to anyone planning to have children. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like it if you just waited awhile. And because of your importance to the survival of Equipoise, I must say you must have no chance for suicide.”

In moments, a tracking device targeted Ezel and the tiles, besides that of Ezel’s, raised. Within that time, a plastic net bound upon her and made it so no limb could move free. And time passed. Eventually, the sound of a door opened and a monitor screen opened. Vrelk’s voice sounded, “Okay, Vincent, take action accordingly and make sure you don’t underestimate the thing. She’s bound though, so taking her won’t be hard.”

And it was when Vrelk stopped watching Ezel that she let her small knife that was within her sleeve drop. She grasped it, and pulled it up against the plastic fibres. One after the other broke, they were brittle and didn’t even cross-fibre. Soon she had taken one side free, and she stepped out of it while the tiles lowered. She raised the gun she had at her side, and knelt down. As soon as the tiles lowered to her eye height, she raised her gun and aimed.

“Unlock the door or I’ll shoot.”

“Are you kidding me? You are of Kibosh, the powerful union which uses no guns. Your aim is likely terrible, if you can even fire that.”

“I hope your status doesn’t need you to walk,” and Vincent’s knee cap was soon punctured, “Unlock the door.”

“No, I am loyal to Equipoise. If you kill me, you take one elite away from us. But I am not the source of law. If I release you, I might allow you to take away one of my superiors.”

And in doing so, Vincent shot at Ezel’s gun with his trained eye. And in doing so, the air pressure was released and made the gun useless. Vincent turned around and opened link with Vrelk. Soon the monitor was on again, and Vrelk looked with tired eyes at Vincent.

“What now?”

“The lady shot my leg, though I have dismantled her gun. The problem is that she also cut loose of the net. She should only have one knife, if she kills me then she looses her one line of offence and you can send in another person, though I understand I have one of the better genes.”

“I see, Ezel also seems to have good genes. That is why I have chosen from my highest gene pool. And since her genes are in the ways of combat, I chose someone who had the genes of strength also. So Vincent, what will we do? She cut the net. We will need to replace it, or get her onto another tile. Though I do believe that you could just disable her limbs. Her current state is not her genetic state.”

“Alright, sorry for disturbing you.”

“Don’t worry, you are doing us good.”

“Of course, you are the law.”

And the small computer screen returned to its black tone. Vincent turned around, a small smile on his face, and aimed at Ezel’s none vital limbs. Four shots were fired, each shot led to a limb’s disablement. Then the gate finally opened. With it, Ezel moved to the crevice and looked out of it. Wishing she could only climb up the greased slope, and she began to feel the great fear as she realized that there was no escape.

But he didn’t. He wouldn’t. What he wanted he held back. He kept conscience. If someone came, he had to at least have the knowledge of it. He thought some more, he felt tired. He hadn’t slept for awhile, but he could take missing sleep. He began to recollect the events of the day. He had awoken at the base, met with Ezel, Vik and Greg. They had planned to have a silent attack, until Greg slipped. If only Greg hadn’t slipped. That triggered the death of Vik, and the wounds Greg received. That led Ezel and him to change objectives and siege the chemistry lab of Equipoise for supplies. That led to this. Now he was here. Now he was laying with his brain in a buzz. He had recoverd a bit, enough to feel the pain of his overworked body. His legs hurt from running, his lungs hurt from the lack of oxygen and his head hurt with the impact of falling. It throbbed. But these were just the highlights, the pain was all around him. But then it struck him what came after Greg fell. He went to the lab, he did siege it with Ezel. He had ran though, and Ezel had disappeared. He had made the core his goal. His original goal. And then the emotion of dignity and respect filled within him. He thought of how Zerkaz had worked so hard to come to this point, he had died trying. And here he was. Laying about going and remembering. Here he was, just laying on the floor when he was so close to the core. He had to get up, and continue. He couldn’t lay about in the middle of a battle. He was in a battle zone laying around wanting to sleep. This wasn’t what he wanted to do. But he couldn’t get up. He just kept wanting to. He just kept trying to. But every attempt to get his legs up failed. His nerves refused. He pushed harder. He had to get up, his mind was now back together. He had reorganized and recompiled all the information and was now trying to get his body to do as he wished. But it wouldn’t. He tried again. And again. And again. And again. But still, he laid about. And again. And again. And again. He had to get up. He slid his arms now. If his legs were going to clamp, he would have to make his arms help him. He pushed up, and pulled himself forward. He kept pulling. He wouldn’t stop. He had to get to Vrelk. Vrelk was mortal, Vrelk could be killed. Why hadn’t he killed Vrelk before? He had to now. He pressed on. He pushed himself again. But he was surrounded in a haze of emotional thought. He didn’t even have any adrenalin left within him. And then he could finally see the turn he had made last time, into a unit of hydrogen gunmen. He couldn’t continue, unless he could get up. But his legs still refused. Perhaps Vrelk wished to see him. This time though, he would not be fortunate. Or maybe…

“I am Kryn! I demand an audience with Vrelk at once. Perhaps law could be useful for Doom, a merge with Kibosh would surely accelerate the speed of conquest.”

And before he knew it, Kryn was on a chair in front of the man who had tortured him. But this time, Vrelk believed that Kryn had civil terms. Of course, Kryn had his blades in a clamp on the desk. Five guards were also in the room.

“Please, do forgive me for my actions upon you. Do not mind the security, I must be careful.”

“Of course, a false security is better then no security, or is it?”

And that was as far as the diplomacy went, assassination had already struck before they had finished their introductions and pleasantries. For Kryn had clenched his fists and the claws within his gloves were gouged into Vrelk’s heart. He had by then taken control of his legs, slightly. He got up and tilted back as he guessed the angles of fire he would receive. He grabbed the clamp and clawed one of the guards, then another and he decided to move to the side after to avoid the shots. He then clawed the next three in quick succession. He had caught the door guard first, so no alarms were set. He now had control of the room. Now to get into Vrelk’s control room. He unclamped his blades and moved forward.

The control room wasn’t far, and due to the need for soldiers and the false sense of safety, no elites were in the core. They had all attended the blood bath. Kryn entered the room, the computer was on standby. In a moment, it was back into working.

First, he skimmed over what Vrelk had been doing, then he looked for any special information. He found it, the statistics of Equipoise. Their power was being strained through this battle, and their population wasn’t having enough support. Kibosh had taken their last elevator. He looked at how they were doing economically, and he even was able to skim over how the enemy allies were doing. It seemed that Kibosh’s allies were being successful. Kryn then decided to look into the temporary folders. He looked about, and then noticed two video files that had been recently taken at the Equipoise prison, around the chemistry lab. He had already guessed that the only logical prisoner of that area could be Ezel. His thoughts were verified when he watched the two. He could tell where it was leading, and he knew that Ezel was his heir. If Ezel died and he died, Kibosh would be left for a interval of time where they would be vulnerable, without an initialized leader. They would have to go through long steps of deciding who was worthy of Kibosh, and it could easily be the fall of Kibosh, if Equipoise didn’t take advantage. Though, Equipoise was also about to reach this vulnerability. Kibosh couldn’t miss the chance. If Ezel died and Kryn lived, he would be left with a less competent advisor.

But he could easily find where Vincent had gone, Equipoise only had three elites named Vincent. One was on the front lines, so there was only two left. But one more pointer was left, the Vincent that Vrelk had sent had superior genes. With a small look at the two Vincents' genes, Kryn saw that one was evidently more physically fit then the other. The Vincent he was after, who turned out to be the heir of Vrelk, lived in a cubicle three kilometres away from the core. Kryn set off, he’d get Ezel and then they would go to Kibosh, to call an attack.

The news of Vrelk’s death hadn’t spread, it wouldn’t until someone went into the conference room. Until then, guards were still guarding and escorts were still escorting. Kryn kept aware of his surroundings, and killed any who walked by him. In an hour and a half, Kryn was at the door of Vincent. He opened link with Vincent, yelling in anger now.

“Vincent! Free Ezel, now.”

Soon, Vincent was at the monitor, an angry grin in his face.

“Why? From what it seems, that black powder can’t break through doors.”

“Then I will close the diplomacy, just like I did when I killed Vrelk.”

“Stop bluffing. How could you kill Vrelk?”

“He is mortal, as are you.”

“And you, Kryn.”

“I know, nothing is indestructible. Even diamondium can be atomized.”

“Then I wait, you bluff of your assassination and you bluff now.”

“While I open this door, go try to contact Vrelk.”

“I’ve already sent a message to him.”

“Did you verify that? If I remember, I sent any data that I wished to archive to Kibosh and then destroyed the computer myself.”

“All right, I’ll go verify. You Kryn, try to pick that lock as long as you wish.”

“Okay.”

Vincent walked away, and Kryn took one of his swords, the glass door’s lock would shatter eventually. He slashed at it, ignoring his hands’ protest. He raised it again, hacking at the small crack in the door. Each slash had a small chip or crack with its low vibration. Soon Vincent’s face reappeared at the monitor.

“You really killed Vrelk. And to think, I’m his heir. Vrelk was a great man Kryn, and I will have to avenge him now. Don’t even think about breaking open that door, unless you want a bullet in your head.”

But during the whole dialogue, Kryn hadn’t stopped hacking the door lock. He was almost through the door now. He raised his blade once more, and smashed upon the lock. It finally broke. He opened the door, and while opening the door he pulled his other sword out. But it was more the way he opened the door. He didn’t walk in, he more pushed the door open and then stepped back. Vincent, not wanting to step out, held the stale mate. Kryn reached to the side and opened link with Vincent again. In the small moment that Vincent was set aback by Kryn opening link with him, Kryn had jumped upon him and killed Vincent. Kryn then shut the door. All he had to do was get Ezel, and then go to Kibosh.

But he hadn’t expected that Ezel’s limbs would be shot. There she lay. But with her limbs, he’d have to call for Kibosh escorts.

“Are you okay?”

“Better then I expected.”

“Well, Vincent is dead.”

“I could hear.”

“How did they get you?”

“I slipped in some grease, that tunnelled into the prison. From there, Vrelk sent Vincent. If I had killed Vincent, Vrelk would have sent some other superior gene. They are having a population crisis, so they have taken steps to compensate for the deaths.”

“I know, I scanned through the database. I also sent some of the information to Kibosh. I’ll go call for some escorts.”

“Alright.”

Kryn left the room, went to the computer and called for escorts, three groups were sent and they would hopefully reach the glass cubicle within four hours. Until then, Kryn and Ezel just had to keep the room from any guards, if any came. During that time, Kryn got Ezel some bandages and braces for her limbs.

“Thanks, a lot of people would have ran for Kibosh after killing Vrelk.”

“Such actions are illogical, if I left you in Equipose I would lose my heir, advisor and best escort. I also had to kill Vincent, now the next despot won’t be chosen as easily.”

“Kryn, are you always so logical?”

“It is what brought me to be heir of Zerkaz. On the topic of Zerkaz, why didn’t he have a heir?”

“The event was not possible.”

“I see. I think we should take a detour to the lab after, where did the materials I gave you go?”

“They were left in the prison, Vincent decided to send them back to the lab and take note of them. He guessed that they were ingredients for black powder.”

“Well, that makes it so that we should get the chemicals even more.”

And so small chat like this and shifted naps went on for around four hours, and two of the escort groups were present at that time. And one survivor of the ambushed one. There was therefore, thirteen people to escape Kibosh, five of which were carrying Ezel. They moved to the lab, Kryn emptied it of its usefulness and gave five of the escorts sacks to carry the chemicals upon their backs. This left only Kryn and three others fully mobile.

Few enemy units were crossed, those crossed were dealt with. Those who ran, would find out that their was no leader to warn. Kryn didn’t chase after them now, his main priority was getting to Kibosh, with Ezel alive.

In another four hours, they reached the sieged Equipoise zone of Kibosh.

Ezel was left to heal, and Kryn was no longer needed for the final blow. He only instigated it. Each unit had its instruction, the moral of Equipoise was almost gone now. Any Equipoise civilians could surrender, they would resign as Equipoise and be left with their crest embedded, only a red hexagon would be labelled over it. They would be limited so that they could not join the military, most of them would be left with only the option to be a hydroponic farmer, or engineer, if they could.

Soon, the Equipoise loyalists, who were mainly the elites, were all killed and Equipoise was now Kibosh. Had Zerkaz lived, he would have been able to have a second pilgrimage to Omega. But now, only Kryn would go. He would do it alone, just as Zerkaz had.

Kryn left the next day, he took with him his swords and nothing else, besides basic provisions in the case that he come within a hostile zone which would not provide him with nutrients. He left, and only Ezel would know where he was going.

“Hello, I think you are going to be the leader of Kibosh for awhile.”

“Why so?”

“Did Zerkaz ever tell you of Ultima and Omega?”

“Yes, when I became his heir.”

“The same for me, and now that Equipoise has fallen, the last real threat towards Ultima, I will pilgrim there also. When Zerkaz went to Ultima, they told him to defeat Equipoise. Now, we have defeated them. I am going to ask them for the next step.”

“I see. Have you plotted your course?”

“Yes, the map is in the Vault. I also left some cases of black powder in one of the closets. The thermostats contain blasting gelatine, still in a gel state. When frozen it will explode when cracked and when in the gel state it is stable until mixed with fire. The other material is nitroglycerin, the most destructive explosive you will have. Be careful with it.”

“Alright, make sure you are careful once you are out of the unions which have allied with Kibosh.”

“I will.”