The grey, serene eyes of the Oracle Queen were hidden behind her closed eyelids. Her eyebrows were thick, her lips thin, and her unadorned, straight black hair touched the seat of her throne. Large silver-loop earrings lightly caressed her exposed shoulders. Her royal robes of white, peppermint green, and light purple flowed along the lines of her petit body. Her leather belt, engraved elegantly with depictions of angelic creatures, was adorned with a crystal buckle that had seven diamonds set into it–each representing one of the Seven Stars of Pleiadia; the buckle was a gift to her royal line from the Winged Creator. Her feet were bound in white boots of soft suede with light blue silk straps that were woven and tied tightly around her shins. She sat peacefully with her legs crossed on her throne. Her right hand rested in the palm of her left, and her left hand rested in the cloth nest below her childless belly.
She was wise, but far younger than her royal appearance would confess, and even younger still in the knowledge and experience needed to play in the dangerous games of politics and government. Her allies were few for she paid no heed to the delicate balances required between her and the royal families, the corporate nobles, the politicians, the bureaucrats, the military elite, and the Ideo-clans.
In the many decades before her reign the Ideo-clans had grown strong in corporate power and political influence over the sectors, regions, and colonies of the expanding Atlantean Empire. Of the competing Ideo-clans there was one that had gained the greatest of power, controlling the ways and means of politics, economy, finance, and military conquest. Ophiuchus was the name of this clan whose leader was known to all as the corporate noble, Maniok. Deep was Maniok's hate for the reigning light of the eight Atlantean Royal Families and its Kai guardians and priestesses. It was rumored by some that he had once been a Kai guardian apprentice of the Order of Leo many decades, perhaps centuries, ago. But this was bizarre speculation for there was no credible record describing the origins of the one named Maniok. He was, in all senses of the word, a mystery.
In her few short years as Oracle Queen, Andromeda sought to accomplish good in the name of her empire. Her heart was innocent and pure, hopeful and faithful. She strived to end the long brutal expanse of her empire; she fought to protect the natural riches of her lands, and she spoke to end the suffering of those who could not speak in political rhymes: the slaves, the poor, the children, the crippled, and the many creatures of the land, sea, and sky. But, sadly, her righteousness had failed and deceived her, and she sat on her throne in thought of what could have been now that it was all soon to end.
Her throne, the centerpiece of a massive, circular royal throne chamber was a flat, short, white marble column elevated by ten concentric white marble planes. It was cut several millenniums ago from Mount Kai; considered by the Wise to be the birthplace of the Red race.
The Atlantean Royal Throne chamber was unlike any other of its day. It was bathed in a glorious white light whose source could not be explained; it was neither lit by the sun, nor by flames, nor by electrical means. It was said, according to myth, to have been lit by a great magic of a time long forgotten. Of course, no modern Atlantean believed in magic. There was only the truth of science, technology, and medicine to adhere to and abide by.
The true age of the royal throne chamber remained unknown; the Gods of the Seven Stars built it upon the peak of Mount Eve in the beginning days of the Red race. Over time Mount Eve was cut down and shaped to form the Tower of Light, which stood surrounded by what now remained of the seven Atlantean Royal Towers. The royal throne chamber was not only a symbol of the ancient heritage of the Red race but also the sacred link between mortal man and the Winged Creator.
The earth moved and the Oracle Queen woke from her thoughts. She stared at the towering, thick-iron chamber gates. Sitting in meditative positions in a circle around her, on the plane below her, were the High Kai Priestesses all dressed according to the traditional colors of the royal Clan Orders they represented; and standing before them, on the plane below, were their respective High Kai Guardians who were also dressed in the same colors as the High Kai Priestesses to whom they were bound. They all stood in the sequential order of the towers: Drakul, Libra, Virgo, Leo, Cancer, Gemini, and Taurus. There should have been seven guardians and seven priestesses in all but only six pairs were present. The Oracle Queen knew that Neva Yun Ra and Arkan of the Drakul Clan Order had abandoned her to save the life of their forbidden child.
Further below, sitting upon the first seven of the ten concentric planes were all forty-nine of the Oracle Queen's Kai-Minor priestesses. They were beautifully dressed in the colors of the towers they represented. The same number of Kai-Minor guardians stood in lines of seven by seven before the throne chamber gates; they were led by the Kai Elder King, Skaton-ka, who was dressed in black and grey robes that were held to his joints and waist by black leather straps. Black signified his age, superior knowledge, and skill–he was the only Kai guardian able to defeat a sword-wielding opponent with nothing more than the single whip of his unarmed hand. His shaved scalp revealed long snake like scars that wiggled when he laughed or frowned. His left wrist was adorned with a faded, yellow cotton bracelet whose long threads hung from a tight knot to his callused fingertips.
The bracelet was a gift from his mother on the day he was passed on to the Kai; he was seven years of age. His mother could not afford to feed him and his nine siblings after the death of his father. Out of desperation she decided to give him to the Kai guardians of the Girus Temple where he could be educated and fed. His time at the temple was filled with longing for the comforts of his mother's warm embraces as he cleaned, worked, and served the Kai guardians like a slave. But, he persevered in his meditations until the day came when he was granted leave to go on his three-hundred-day retreat into the snow-capped Mountains of Arakara. It was there that he gained the Enlightenment and trained in the art of Kai sword under the guidance of the Sirians. That was so long ago, he thought.
And together they listened to the oncoming darkness beyond the chamber gates. Boom, boom, boom was the song of its approach.
Skaton-ka clasped his hand around the leather hilt of his double-edged long sword; the Sirian Creator had forged his sword in the volcanic fires of Maldek in the late years of the Age of Libra. It was an instrument that had the power to give and take life, and a symbol of the oppressive wars waged by the Lyrans against the Sirians. Skaton-ka was the Elder King of the Order of the Kai Guardian guild and forever bound to his Oracle Queen. He was devoted to his faith; he was a warrior-priest pure of heart, and he possessed a mind nearly devoid of any desire beyond the spiritual or ideal. Never had he loved and never would he wed for he was the holy patriarch of his guild.
He knew that his many decades on the Mother had finally come to its last hour. He had seen it in his dreams–an approaching darkness that would extinguish all that was known to him in a single night. He had trained his entire life to embrace and not fear death in the face of battle. As a Kai, he was prepared to lay down his life for his Oracle Queen. He woke every morning believing that that day would be his last. He held no wants, desires, or attachments to his physical body. As a Kai warrior educated in the scriptures of reincarnation he knew that he had lived and died many hundreds, if not thousands of times. Even within a single lifetime he knew that he had died and been reborn time and time again; the Skaton-ka of age five was no longer, as was the Skaton-ka of age fifty-five. Death and rebirth were simply a part of the unending cycle that defined the material realm; all things must end, be forgotten, and be renewed. Thus were the laws of impermanence.
He stood proud and strong in the white light of the Oracle Queen's throne chamber while gazing at the metallic designs that adorned the borders of the iron gates before him. He tried to commit to memory every detail of the hand-hammered roses and vines that crept up the outer sides of the gates for he knew that they would soon be destroyed by the force that was now upon the white tower.
He had always sought to inquire about the artisan who had fashioned such a metallic wonder; he wanted to know when he had lived, and what was known of him. Every time he had passed through those gates he reminded himself to research into the life of the artist, but always did something of greater urgency occupy his actions and thoughts. And now he stood with no time left to quench his curiosity.
What will be remembered of me? he thought. Perhaps nothing. Perhaps my sword or a trinket of mine will be found in another age. It will be dug up from the earth that had swallowed it and placed upon an altar to be looked upon by an observer who will wonder as I wonder now about the life of this man who crafted those metallic roses. And in the place of fact there will only be imagination to answer these inquiries for nothing of my life will be remembered in a thousand years' time. Only my possessions might outlive me and exist as a monument to my forgotten memory. Such is the way of things.
He went on thinking about his life. So many years had he lived and so many disciples had he taught. Never had he kissed a woman for he had long ago succeeded in disciplining his mind to overcome the desires of his heart. The defeat of his heart was of his own design, of his own making: a sacrifice, a testament of his allegiance to the Kai. He saw the world only through the strict and narrow lens of his faith. Indifferent was he to joy, grief, pleasure, and pain. Virtue was all that he knew and lived by. He was an efficient warrior, a loyal protector of the Kai.
The Oracle Queen gazed lovingly at the back of Skaton-ka. She knew what he was thinking. She loved him dearly like a grandfather and respected his morality and high integrity, but she did not endorse the means by which he had achieved them. She only saw imbalance in his spirit; a man ruled by a mind that gave no voice to his heart. To reject the heart as Skaton-ka did was an act of cruelty, an act of inhumanity. He had gained as a warrior, yes, but he had lost his ability to feel and truly understand what he was protecting. He was cold to the women that adored him and unable to understand the free-spirited ways of children. He was an admirable man, but a sadly tragic one for he had spent all his years in emotional solitude, unattached to all those around him. But, the Oracle Queen understood why he, High Kai Guardian Elder of the Order of Light, lived as he did. He was a warrior king: the embodiment of the Kai guardian guild's ancient ways.
Strangely, now that the end was so near, Skaton-ka found his mind confused and upset. He did not understand it. He did not know what was eating at his thoughts. It caused him to feel nauseous, as if he was sailing upon a stormy sea. This creeping feeling, yes, that is what it is, was alien to him, but yet he had known of it, felt it before in his youth. It was fear; fear of the end and for the wicked things that came.
In that moment, the walls around his heart began to crumble. He bowed his head and held his face with his hands. He was trembling and sad. He wanted to let out and cry the long quieted ache of his heart, but a rush of warmth overcame him, giving him strength.
"It is all right, my warrior king, to feel as you do."
"Yes, my Queen. Forgive me. I am failing you in our last hour."
"No, you are not. It is right for you to feel as you do before you fall into the Light. It is right for you to feel the heart that you have repressed for so long. Long have I loved you, learned from you, and cried for you, my Elder King. Much from your life have you sacrificed for my royal line. Now it is time for you to feel. Feel and be strong. Cry and be strong. Love and be strong. You are loved by many, my king."
"Yes, my Queen. I weep for the end of our Kai ways."
"My Elder King, both you and I know that this is how it must be. We have seen it in our dreams, this dark night. And from this darkness will a seed of light be born to awaken the Age of the Lion."
"No, my Queen! It is not right that we shall be ended!"
Skaton-ka lifted his head and fed his anger with the horrid knowledge that the entire history of his beloved Kai faith was to be wiped from the Mother. All his years of unattached focus, meditation, and prayer had now failed him. He would stand before the menace that sought to destroy all within the throne chamber and defeat it for he despised it.
Determined to fight and lead his Kai honorably he turned to face them and settled his sight upon Kron, High Kai Guardian Elder of the Order of Taurus, and the other High Kai Guardians who stood before their respective High Kai Priestesses. The vacancy between his High Kai Guardians reminded him of his young friend, Arkan.
He believed Arkan had chosen an unwise path, but understood why he had chosen as he did. It was the duty of the Kai to swear eternal allegiance to the Oracle Queen, but Arkan had lost faith in her ability to rule. The Atlantean Empire was not what it had been for so many thousands of years for in this dark time the Empire was held sway by the strong interests of Ideo controlled corporations that sought to maintain and further their global economic hold. Bureaucrats and politicians were easily bought and manipulated by the Ideo-clans who employed poli-ki-clans and speed tribes to do their dirty work. The Empire no longer belonged to the old ways of the Kai, but to the culture of corporate greed.
He knew that to Arkan's eyes the Oracle Queen was too young to understand the need to compromise with political and corporate forces. Arkan had confessed to him his belief that she ruled by a high ideal that far distanced her from the realities and intricacies that defined the complex, modern age the Empire now found itself in.
Arkan belonged to the old and respected Kai line of Drakul. His royal ancestors were Kai kings and queens who had ruled the regions of Atlantis that now lay beneath the sea–the Second Great Quake of Ara swallowed two of the former five island continents of Atlantis. He was, unlike many of his ancestors, a radical force within the Kai. He had stirred and rebelled like an adolescent. He had always been proud and continually questioned, criticized, and even mocked the decisions of the Oracle Queen.
Skaton-ka, old and wise in the faith, was unable to quiet the young and high-spirited Arkan. He tried to teach Arkan to have faith in the Oracle Queen. He reminded him that the Kai Royal Highness was in constant communication with the Angels of the Seven Stars and that they guided her and through her the Empire. Arkan did not believe that the Pleiadians had the divine ability to guide her wisely. He felt that they had meddled in the affairs of humanity for far too long, and as a result he paid little heed to the code of the Kai; it was therefore of no surprise to Skaton-ka that Arkan had seeded his Kai priestess, Neva Yun Ra. Their unborn child would be the first to be mothered by a High Kai Priestess and fathered by a High Kai Guardian.
The existence of the child was known of and kept secret amongst the high circles of the Kai, but it was suspected and whispered amongst the Kai apprentices and servants within the hidden halls and passageways of the royal towers. Keeping their meetings secret from Arkan and Neva Yun Ra the High Kai Council met with the Oracle Queen, they debated over what was to be done with the forbidden child. Some argued to sacrifice the child while others believed that it was the one child referred to in the prophecy of Artemis. The Oracle Queen was unconvinced of what action to take and decided to meditate and take council with the Pleiadians from whom she learned that the child would ultimately fall to the dark. After much hesitation, she finally decided to have the child destroyed upon its birth. News of this leaked to Arkan, which caused him to begin preparations to save the life of his unborn child. It was during this time, in the months after the conception of the child, that Maniok had crushed his political and corporate rivals to then fix his attacking eye upon the Oracle Queen and her Kai, causing some of those who knew of the forbidden child's existence to see it only as an ill omen.
Never had Skaton-ka met the one named Maniok, but he had watched his power grow over a score of decades. All that was known of him was that he had emerged from Ideo and that he had aggressively led his clan into battle against those who opposed his desire to control all avenues of finance and trade within the underground. When he had gained dominion over the Ideo sector he expanded into the citizen sectors of Atlas by buying into an array of corporations, which he eventually merged into a single conglomerate known to all as the Maniok Corporation; and with this legitimate wealth he bought the support of politicians and corporate nobles to legitimize his growing economic and political power.
Skaton-ka continually advised the Oracle Queen of the dangers of Maniok's growing and overwhelming influence, but there was little that she could do. The political power she had inherited was faded, weak, and mostly symbolic.
Maniok had revealed his dark intent on the fourth day of the year thirteen of the Oracle Queen's reign. His pursuit for a republic had been false; his twisted heart had always sought to overthrow the Kai and rule Atlantean lands with an iron fist. In the years before Andromeda 13 he had gained ownership of the industries that developed military weapons and advanced CybOr-technologies and txiki-technologies. And when finally, high Atlantean generals and commanders sat firmly in the palm of his wicked hand he squeezed and ordered the deaths of all the top corporate executives and high government officials who paid no allegiance to him. All who opposed him now were the Oracle Queen and her Kai.
Skaton-ka faced his Kai-Minor guardians. He looked with pride at his young apprentice, Volan, who was standing in the front line, and noticed his camel bone necklace and silver earrings; gifts his mother had given to him on the day he was passed on to the Kai. He wished that there would have been more time to have taught Volan a better understanding of the philosophy behind Kai sword or to have shared another cup of rose tea with him. He is a fine Kai-Minor guardian, he thought. He then looked out and said aloud to his Kai-Minor, "This is our last hour as brothers and sisters in this world! You know what is asked of you. As Children of the Law of One we serve. As children of the Kai we protect. May your swords strike true!"
The walls of the throne chamber shivered. The small army of Kai-Minor guardians looked in disbelief as they saw cracks draw themselves down the chamber's marble walls for the first time since the Second Great Quake of Ara. Then there was silence. All stood still. The violent drums of the explosions had ceased. In unison, all the Kai priestesses woke from their meditations and looked up at the massive iron gates.
"It is time!" Skaton-ka roared with an anger that melded into the fierce explosion that tore open the gates launching thick metal fragments to the other end of the royal chamber. All Kai-Minor guardians unsheathed their long swords and held them high above their heads. They stood firm before the shattered entrance as debris fell in all directions, but not upon them for they were protected by the telekinetic will of their priestesses. The white light of the throne chamber reflected off the sheen beauty of their swords. They called out their battle cries and charged into a cloud of fire and ash.
Rapid plasma-fire flowered into the throne chamber like an unending stream of fireworks. The Oracle Queen and all her Kai priestesses immediately protected themselves from the attack by jointly creating a half-sphere, Kai-Ra energy shield that revealed itself as a dark blue hue when the unending streams of plasma-fire were absorbed by it. And although the Kai-Minor guardians fought only with swords they were each individually protected by the Kai-Ra projected around them by their respective Kai-Minor priestesses. Their swords were strong, dense alloys sharp enough to cut with ease into the heavy metal of the attacking kragita-droids whose height was four times that of a man.
Only one kragita-droid could enter the royal throne chamber at a time through the vertical crater created by the blast. Their cyclopic eyes targeted groups of Kai guardians and fired upon them from the canons that formed the whole of their forearms. For every explosive shot and blast there were two to three Kai-Minor guardians thrown into the air, but after smashing into the floor and regaining their senses they found only minor cuts and bruises upon their skin; their Kai-Ra shields did not protect them from the solid objects that struck them within it. And when the guardians rose to reengage in the fight they quickly bowed in gratitude to their Kai-Minor priestesses for shielding them.
The kragita-droids began to fill the chamber. The stomping of their immense hooved feet repeatedly shattered and shook the ground causing groups of guardians to lose their balance and fall as Kai priestesses held strong to their meditations, deaf to the loud destruction all around them.
Volan had fallen, and when he looked up he saw a kragita-droid's iron sole rise high above him. He grabbed his sword, scrambled to his knees, and rolled. There was a massive stomp. Safe, he sighed, but he found that the marble floor had splintered up cutting his arm. He cursed and then launched himself onto the droid's foot. The kragita-droid looked down. He wound his arm and threw his long sword straight into its single eye. Blind, the kragita-droid kicked in all directions before flinging Volan off its foot.
Kai-Minor guardians soon assailed upon the sightless droid slicing and hacking at its feet. Its legs then buckled and it fell to its knees. The guardians then overtook the droid, but it fired its last shot at the high ceiling releasing a downpour of stone and dust upon the Oracle Queen and the Kai priestesses. Volan and the men of his guild stopped and looked helplessly at the falling trail of stones and dust, but suspired when they saw it all slide along the sides of the priestesses' Kai-Ra shield.
Long swords were lost or broken as the Kai-Minor continued battling the kragita-droids, but were instantly replaced by short swords and other weapons hidden within their garments. Together the Kai-Minor took the kragita-droids down one by one in the manner revealed to them by Volan; they struck at the eye of the droids and cut them down.
As the number of kragita-droids began to dwindle a cyborg army armed with plasma assault-rifles and double-edged swords festered into the royal chamber. The cyborgs looked like men, robust in appearance, but hairless and with colorless flesh.
Skaton-ka ran at a cyborg that fired repeatedly at him; each shot rippled and illuminated his Kai-Ra in a light blue glow. The cyborg had only moments, desperately it dropped its rifle and grabbed its sword, but Skaton-ka lashed out and decapitated it.
He charged from one cyborg to the other within a battle scene filled with clanging swords, plasma-fire, and metallic limbs that bled oil upon crushed marble stone.
He moved like water flowing down a riverbed filled with jagged rocks.
Holding his long sword, he ran and threw himself at the colossal kragita-droid before him, and stabbed his blade into its chest. Hanging from the sword's hilt he pulled himself up, drew out his short sword, and stabbed it into the space above his head. Hanging now from his short sword he twisted his long sword within the droid's chest before pulling it out and landing on the ground.
Fire belched from the kragita-droid's lacerated chest. It swiped its cannon arms at the flames but could not extinguish them. The droid then bent forward and targeted Skaton-ka who had already unleashed his long sword from a tight wind that sliced clean through the droid's shin. And like a mighty tree cut down at its base the droid fell; its last vision was of a Kai-Minor guardian raising his long sword over its eye.
Skaton-ka retrieved his short sword from the droid's upper chest and slid it back into its sheath. Cyborgs approached him with swords ready in attack positions. Devoid of all thought he closed his eyes, breathed the heated air deep into his lungs, and relaxed his grip on the hilt of his long sword. He squinted and smiled before lashing his sword out in a vicious whirlwind assault that defaced the humanoid opponents all around him. In eerie unison, the cyborgs dropped their swords and fell into a circle of death around the Kai Elder King. He looked beyond their twitching bodies and saw his Kai-Minor guardians fighting the unrelenting storm of cyborgs and kragita-droids.
The battle consumed all within the royal throne chamber except for its sacred center, where stood the High Kai Guardians, and where sat the priestesses all around their beloved Oracle Queen. It was an unsettling sight; the constant and familiar blue glow of the Kai-Ra that protected the meditating beauty of the priestesses while giant machines, cyborgs, and men battled within smoking fumes of grey and black.
Skaton-ka looked at the High Kai Guardians. He looked at his Oracle Queen upon her marble throne, found peace in her gaze, and stood transfixed upon her enigmatic beauty and youth.
Kron interrupted Skaton-ka's thoughts and spoke to his mind, "Let us fight." Skaton-ka dropped his exhausted arms and shoulders. His long sword dripped with oil as sweat soaked into his garments. Cyborgs advanced upon him. He was feeling the strain of his age; his mind could only stretch the years of his body so far. The cyborgs closed in. Kron called for an answer and Skaton-ka replied, "No, you must stand as one with the five beside you."
He looked to the floor littered with shredded metal and blood trying to find renewed strength in his heart and suddenly, like a falcon about to take flight, he spread open his arms revealing the virility of his two crafted swords. Anger contorted his face into that of a wild boar about to strike its prey; open mouthed, fangs dripping saliva. He roared as he swung his swords decapitating the cybernetic enemy before him. Two cyborgs rushed in, but he leapt and flew high into the smoky air. A heavy array of plasma-fire came at him from below, but his Kai-Ra protected him from the shots that would have otherwise ripped him apart into globs of melted flesh. Using the force of his descent he rounded his long sword to slash in two another cyborg. He crouched before the divided cyborg and marveled at its interior circuitry.
The floor shook violently; a kragita-droid was kicking and crushing the ground. Skaton-ka raised his Sirian long sword to catch the droid's attention and then pointed the sword's tip at the droid's eye while holding his short sword perpendicular to the ground. Just as the droid approached him he ran and leapt into the ash air sheathing his swords, twisting and dodging a volley of plasma-fire, and landing onto its head. Like an agile spider he moved to the droid's shoulder while avoiding its swiping cannon arms, but its movements became more and more vicious and he slipped and fell slamming his chin hard against its metallic back before grabbing the droid's neck. As he tried to pull himself up he saw that the droid was running toward the throne chamber wall to crush him. He drew out his short sword, but before he was able to stab the mechanical beast he lost his grip and flew into the air, losing his sword. He crashed into a pile of shredded metal that cut deep into his arms and back.
There was a massive sound. Ignoring his wounds Skaton-ka saw that the kragita-droid had crashed into the chamber wall. Destruction was now everywhere. He looked and despised the desecration that now fashioned the royal throne chamber, but the mesmerizing peace of the priestesses' Kai-Ra calmed him.
The kragita-droid, now the last within the royal chamber, pushed itself out of the crater it had created in the chamber wall and charged after Skaton-ka. Skaton-ka, unable to rise to his feet, scurried away on his hands and knees. The droid was now upon him, raising its iron foot. Skaton-ka crouched and sprang away. KURAAASH!!! The droid had stomped hard into the floor creating a massive hole beside the old Kai guardian. The droid lifted its other foot for a second attempt, but Skaton-ka jumped high up, over, and behind the metallic nightmare launching his long sword straight into its armored back before falling back down to the ground. The droid collapsed.
Breathing heavily Skaton-ka looked around and realized that the first offensive line of droids and cyborgs had finally dwindled into pathetic heaps of scrap metal. His Kai-Minor guardians, who were also catching their breaths and tending to their wounds, were standing in small pockets all around the royal throne chamber counting their dead. Seven of their youngest fighters had they lost to the enemy. Tired, he shook his head severely pained by the deaths of his Kai disciples, and looked to Kron who had bent down in grief, and at the Kai priestesses who continued to sit in deep meditation around their Oracle Queen. He could see sweat dripping from the priestesses' foreheads and their thin robes clinging to their moist skin. He then looked at his Oracle Queen who was also deep in meditation, but aware of him and of everything within her royal throne chamber. His eyes began to well with tears as he gazed at the vibrant blue hue of his priestesses' Kai-Ra for its beauty continued to inspire him.
The Oracle Queen spoke to him, "You are my warrior king, Skaton-ka. You have always been faithful to the ancient ways of the Kai. You are strong in your thoughts and wise in your years. But it is not done. Awake and fight."
"Yes, my Oracle Queen." Skaton-ka stood proud, but further aged, before his men. He pulled his long sword out from the back of the kragita-droid he had defeated and wiped it clean of the oil that oozed down its surface. The Kai-Minor guardians followed his example and wiped their swords as well. With dwindling strength, he looked through the smoky air, beyond the shattered chamber gates, and saw a second offensive line of cyborgs. Looking farther ahead he saw a third and fourth offensive line; he knew that this army would ultimately overwhelm and tire his guardians.
It began; cyborgs howled like savage wolves at a full moon. These howls caused the youngest guardians to be afraid. Regardless, the guardians, together, faced the cyborgs ready to fight again.
The cyborgs charged in and Skaton-ka ran to meet them by leading his Kai back into battle. The two sides ran at each other shouting their battle cries until they crashed into one another with clanging swords and curses.
Skaton-ka slashed and hacked tearing down cyborg after cyborg as oil and blood splattered repeatedly over his face and arms. Adrenaline rushed through his veins giving him unnatural strength. His heart pounded his chest, and as it did time began to slow.
At a distance, he saw Volan being besieged by seven cyborgs. He could see that his apprentice was struggling, that his defensive tactics were becoming desperate, and that there were no guardians near him to aid him. He knew that it would not be long before the cyborgs overcame him. He ran to him, and as he did he saw the failure of Volan's defense and the blow that beheaded him. He cried out capturing the attention of the seven cyborgs before ramming his Sirian sword all the way through one of the cyborg's heads. Now unarmed, he stopped, turned, caught an assaulting sword between his palms, kicked it out of the attacking cyborg's hands, and drilled his thumbs into its eyes. The blind cyborg grabbed his arms and stretched them out so that a third cyborg, from behind him and armed with two swords, could slice his forearms clean off. Blood sprayed and coated his weathered face as he fell to the floor. His end had finally come.
The cyborg that had defeated Skaton-ka stood over him with hateful eyes–the other cyborgs closed in forming a circle around the two–and smiled savoring the fleeting moments of victory over the armless High Kai Elder before grabbing his left ear, pulling him up to his knees, and beheading him. It then raised the decapitated head up to his, spat on it, and threw it to the floor. The head rolled until it stopped against a mechanical limb.
Skaton-ka could still see and saw his headless body, his bloodied neck stump, and his executioner walking away. He focused his eyes on the faded yellow bracelet of his former body and found ... his mother's warmth again.
The Kai-Minor continued fighting, but their morale was at a loss; their Kai Elder King had fallen. Fear grew stronger in them; it ate at their minds and hearts convincing them that if Skaton-ka–the most skilled of the Kai guardians–could not stand against the onslaught then they had very little chance for survival, let alone victory. Kron tried to reinvigorate them, he spoke to their minds and coordinated their defenses but it was, in the end, futile.
Despair first consumed the youngest Kai-Minor; devoid of hope they soon fell. In time, what remained were only a handful of the oldest Kai-Minor guardians who stood together, back to back, within an impenetrable circle formed around them by the cyborg army. Cyborgs charged into the circle one after the other to battle the remaining Kai; and although the guardians won each engagement they were slowly worn and torn down by a collection of cuts, exhaustion, and time.
All the Kai priestesses felt helpless and frustrated as they could only sit and watch their remaining guardians be felled by enemy swords. Kron begged the Oracle Queen to command her priestesses to unleash the Spheres of Ra upon the cyborg army, but she refused; she knew it would drain too much from her priestesses; their strength was needed to maintain the Kai-Ra.
The priestesses began to weep. They watched the last Kai-Minor, Bator-Uran, hold his sword with unsteady hands. The circle of cyborgs closed in on him. He turned again and again trying to face all the enemies that surrounded him, but it was hopeless. He stopped, prohibited his Kai-Minor priestess from aiding him, and said to the minds of his Kai: Let it be known that I shall fall with no hatred within my heart. And with those words did he strike and fight to his death.
The cyborgs stood and marveled at their feat when all was done with the last guardian. They looked over the scores of Kai limbs, torsos, and heads that littered the throne chamber. They had fulfilled the first act of their task.
Kron, frustrated, filled with guilt, angered that such bloodshed had cursed the sacred walls of the royal throne chamber, began to yell at the young mind of the Oracle Queen begging her again to give the command to attack. The Kai priestesses followed with pleads and demands against their Queen for they had learned nothing from Bator-Uran's words and could no longer bear the horrific site that surrounded them:
We beg of you, our Queen, to let us fight!
Please, please, please let us do so.
Let us not betray them, oh the gods, no!
Please, let us finish these horrid beasts!
What have you done, but lead us to the end?
Betrayed them have you–our Kai-Minor!
And from the Clan Order of Cancer came the wicked words of five Kai-Minor priestesses:
From the Dark were you sent!
All is finished because of you!
Too young–worthless–you cannot see!
The malice of our contempt shall overcome thee!
Let us unleash the Spheres of Ra upon our foe!
Or feel the heat of a heavy blow.
Vile! Vile! Vile! You are hated so!
The Oracle Queen begged them to stop their collective shrill screams that tortured her mind. Holding her hands over her ears she tried desperately to block their exhausting demands and rotten words, but it was of no use, what seemed like a hundred voices filled her mind. Never did she want to give in to their shortsightedness, but she was still young and vulnerable, and after witnessing the slaughter of so many, and having lost their respect she feared them and gave in by ordering the attack.
Simultaneously the Kai priestesses clasped their hands together above their foreheads. Small spheres of fire actualized and expanded before their hands and shot out as bright and blinding light that ripped through the cyborg army. The cyborgs retreated, but the Spheres of Ra came at them unrelentingly; piercing through them; throwing them back; launching them up into balls of flame.
And when all was done of the cyborgs the Kai priestesses dropped their exhausted hands and arms, and rested.