Siren's Elegy Volume 1: Orphans of Ashen Earth

Chapter 58: Battle of Kings

October 11, 4021 11:56 [Lahab Mutajamid Desert]

"We will not bow to your sacrilegious tenets! If we are to be cast into oblivion then we shall do so fighting with honor and dignity!" King Rahman proclaimed, leaping down from the Dabbah. The force of his landing created an impact crater kilometers wide, sending a wave of ice and snow in all directions. Nearby soldiers bore the brunt of the disruption, crushed to death or suffocated underneath its volume.

Clad in regal white armor lined with patterns wrought from gold, the king was an imposing figure. His sleek helmet concealed his facial features completely, allowing Hart only a view of his reflection.

The Hyena grinned, his crimson hair flowing in the wind. To an outsider, it would have appeared that the leader of the Yuèliàngian forces had shed the safety of his Lancer in order to meet the king head-on in an honorable duel to the death. In truth, however, it was Hart's depraved sense of accomplishment—his need to quell the voices of naysayers. He had no qualms with pulverizing Rahman underfoot with Hollow//Fragment, but the feat would have been quite simple to dismiss.

"He only won because of Uturian technology! They are not innovators, just simple grave robbers! This new ruler is unfit to lead!" these hypothetical critics screamed in his ear.

Though no citizen of Yuèliàng would dare utter such grievances in public for fear of retribution, Hart would not even give them the satisfaction of thinking about them. If he were to seize control of Yuèliàng, he would do so with no contest. The people needed to accept his rule unanimously and without question.

He cracked his knuckles, his fingers twitching. They longed to tear out the king's still-beating heart. Hart imagined the feeling in his palm as the pulse of the final Levantan ruler slowly faded. He salivated at the thought, his fervor for royal blood at its peak.

"Honorably, dishonorably—it doesn't matter to me. All I need is for people to see me rip you apart. There won't be a shred of doubt in their minds once we're done here. Levante and Yuèliàng will be mine!"

Enflamed, Hart rushed at Rahman, and the king followed suit. A deadly clash of fire and ice ensued, creating a dead zone enshrouded by superheated steam.

Their battle was ferocious, the clash rending the dunes asunder. Sand and snow erupted around them as they crossed arms.

The king of Levante brought down a sword of ice, its frost permeating through the air, freezing the lungs of those who drew too near to its illustrious allure. Hart grinned wildly, unperturbed by the cold. He swung upward, with a burning sword, pronged like the antlers of a deer.

The collision of opposing elements sparked another violent explosion as the two combatants shrugged off steam burns, their suits of armor straining to protect them under the magnitude of the assault they enacted upon one another.

Hart flipped effortlessly through Rahman's attacks, striking swiftly and precisely. Rahman, on the other hand, made no attempt to evade his attacks, instead raising a shield that seemed to cool the Hyena's wild flames.

"You put up a good fight for an old man!" Hart jeered.

"Perhaps forty years of age is old in your eyes, but I'd like to think that I still have a full life ahead of me. You, on the other hand, will expire shortly!"

"I'm not some overripe fruit to simply spoil and wither away," Hart snickered.

"Blasphemous creatures! Your very existence defiles that which Allah shaped. You took His creation of man and twisted it into the unnatural abominations you call Homunculi—artificial beings—fake humans. You mock His design with your sick obsessions with immortality and surpassing the limitations of humanity. For your treachery, you sinners have been cursed with diminished lifespans," Rahman seethed.